Before 2000 most of the houses in Harwood were cribs but since then many have been upgraded and become permanent residences. The 2018 census put the population at 231 with a medium age about 15 years above average and 26% being 65 years or older. The ethnic madeup is more similar to that of southern New Zealand in the 1970's than today.
From the official website of the Toitu Otago Settler Museum I got the following:
Octavius Harwood was born at Stepney Green in London in 1816. He was the eighth of Robert Harwood and Mary Soutter’s 10 children, a family position reflected by his name (Latin for eighth). His father was a sea captain while his mother’s family owned ships. Octavius went to sea as an apprentice midshipman on the Soutter ships, running between the West Indies and South Africa. In 1837 he joined the crew of the City of Edinburgh, which took him to Australia. He had joined the ship as a second mate but when the first mate died Octavius took over, still just 21. In Sydney he met George Weller and was sent over to Otago in 1838 to become clerk at the Weller brothers’ store at Ōtākou. Harwood became a key figure in the embryonic settlement around the Wellers’ whaling station and his diary over four years provides an invaluable record of life there. His medical training as a first mate also stood him in good stead and the medical kit he used is part of the Museum collection (on display in the ‘Encounters’ section). When the Weller brothers’ whaling enterprise failed in 1841 Harwood continued managing their store at Ōtākou and then bought it himself.
In 1839 Harwood married Titapu, daughter of the chief Pokene. After her death he had a daughter, Mere, by Pokene’s niece Piro. Once the Otago Association settlers arrived in 1848 he married again, this time Scotswoman Janet Robertson who was a passenger on the Philip Laing. He was running the Ōtākou store until he married Janet, when he made the switch to farming.
For a period in the 1850s Octavius and Janet leased 10,000 acres near Hampden, which was managed by Janet’s brother as Baghdad Run. The couple had seven sons and three daughters and the family was prominent in the development of the Otago peninsula. They farmed leasehold land at Ōtākou until 1870 and then moved to the nearby area which now bears their name. There they ran cattle and cows, rowing their butter across the harbour to Port Chalmers. Octavius died at Harwood in 1900 aged 84.
The following website will show a 2016 photo of his nearby house and some other information: (https://www.ngataonga.org.nz/explore-stories/stories/sound/octavius-francis-harwood-a-journey-of-family-discovery/)
The given coordinates should bring you to the front of the toilet block
You can catch a bus out from the city but the service is quite poor as the timetable aims to get you out in the morning and to return at night. The Otago Regional Website can provide a timetable. There is a bike path almost the entire distance from the inner city with a pinch point on the little rise at Portobello and the last kilometre or so once you turn off the main road.
These toilets are so new that they haven't been given a PT number (at the time of my visit). They, like most recent additions and replacements are of the Permaloo brand.
From where you are standing you will see see the pitched roof building in front of yoy the the porch sheltering the entrance to the two unisex units. There are two blue swing doors that open outwards. Both units are unisex and wheel chair accessible with the right hand unit having a baby changing table. Both doors are lockable from the outside so their is the possibility that they are locked at night although at the time of my visit no opening hours have been posted. That may come when the PT number eventually arrives.
I visited the right hand cubicle. The loo and necessaties are located in the far left hand corner, with everything stainless steel apart from the plastic seat and lid. The sign above the hand basin says that the water is non potable so don't go filling your water bottle.
Lighting comes from a ventilation gap at the top of the wall and a window, as well as one light bulb oat the top of the shared wall. On the opposite wall to this is a stainless steel fold down nappy changing table.
The cubicle is locked from the inside by a simple lever that has a small sign above indicating what direct the lever should be pointing for your desire. There is also a little colour indicator beneath the axis of the lever where red indicated locked, and gree inticates unlocked.
The floor has large square pale grey tiles, the wall and ceiling have tiles of a much paler greyish colour that are rectangular in shape.
At the time of my visit these toilets were clean and tidy with no detectable mal odour.
The cache can be found at S45 48.ABC E170 40.DEF
A = Number of people symbols on the cubicle fdoors + 1
B = Number of letters in the name of the adjacet building - 1
C = Number of letters in the name of the company providing the toilets / 2
D = Number of down pipes at the front?
E = Count the number of people and animal symbols on the nearby sign
F = How many times does the letter a occur in the first 3 lines on this sign?
Checksum = 33
Keep and eye on any young ones with you as there is water near the cache.