Marama, on State Highway 8 on the Dunedin side of Lawrence, stands amongst fine deciduous trees. This outstanding home was built in 1875 by Samuel Miller for Edward Herbert. The owners were shopkeepers for the miners in the Gabriel's Gully Gold Rush days.

It was later bought by Hugh Craig of Craig & Co Stage Coach Services and used as a stopover for coach travellers. In the 1940's it became a children's home for 30 years.
Present and previous owners have restored Marama to reflect some of its original style and it is again a restful stop over for travellers.

Lawrence lies in a valley beside the Tuapeka River, is 92km and one hour drive south from Dunedin on State Highway 8, and is the ideal base to explore the Goldfields area.
Being between the Pacific Coast and the Central Otago area means Lawrence gets the benefit of warm summer sun interspersed with coastal rain. While coastal Otago tends to have a relatively small swing in temperature from summer to winter, further inland, the cloud is less, the oceans no longer hold much sway, and the climate is more continental with hotter summer days.