In Dunedin businesses and buildings are opening their doors for the city's Heritage Festival.
Many places like the Anatomy Museum and former prison are usually off-limits to the public.
One of the hottest tickets in town was for tours of a working brothel.
La Maison is the latest tenant in a Dunedin building that is almost 150 years old.
Today's tours aimed at giving locals the chance to explore secret spots in their own city.
"The buildings that they may have walked past day after day after day and had no idea or no interest or no opportunity to go inside," says Open City tour organiser Jeremy Smith.
The unusual opportunity attracted people of all ages and backgrounds, with tours fully booked out.
Originally built in 1866, for many years the building housed the Dunedin Savings Bank.
The Queen's Gardens business was one of a number of banks in the area during the gold rush period.
Many of the building's original features are still in place. One brick room is the former bank vault, now used as a working dungeon.
The brothel tours are just one of more than 60 places open to the public this weekend.
The former prison was another place many were curious to see inside.
And deep below the city's Athenaeum, a group of performers have brought to life the world of 1865.
Former commercial district Farley's Arcade has been recreated as an interactive experience.
"As a shopping environment it was very theatrical, very interactive and highly social and very lively," says Farley Arcade director Richard Huber.
The mall was described as "the wildest place in town" during Dunedin's founding years – just one of the spots audiences have been taken back in time, for a real-world history experience.
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