Becks is a small settlement in the

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

Region of the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

of New Zealand. It is located on State Highway 85, some north-east of

Omakau Omakau is a settlement in Central Otago, New Zealand, located between Alexandra and Ranfurly on the northwest bank of the Manuherikia River. The smaller settlement of Ophir, New Zealand is located on the opposite bank, three kilometres to the ...

, and just west of where the State Highway crosses the

Manuherikia River The Manuherikia River is located in Otago in the South Island of New Zealand. It rises in the far north of the Maniototo, with the West Branch draining the eastern side of the St Bathans Range, and the East Branch draining the western flanks of t ...

. It lies on the

45th parallel south The 45th parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 45 ° south of the Earth's equator. It is the line that marks the theoretical halfway point between the equator and the South Pole. The true halfway point is south of this parallel becau ...

. The former White Horse Hotel in Becks was established in 1864 by John Nixon Becks, and is registered by

Heritage New Zealand Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust) ( mi, Pouhere Taonga) is a Crown entity with a membership of around 20,000 people that advocate ...

as a Category II heritage building. The township was originally called White Horse, after the public house, but the name was later changed to that of the publican.Becks
, at ''nzhistory.net''. Retrieved 7 April 2015.

References

Populated places in Otago {{Otago-geo-stub