Tuesday March 5 was a beautiful sunny warm day. A high of 27C. After breakfast, we took one last walk into town from our Airbnb. The downhill route is lovely with great views of the Lake and the mountains.
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| Walking to town |
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| Hard to beat the view |
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| Taking it all in |
There are a number of great signs against litter in the city.
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| OK |
We caught the 1:18 local bus to Arrowtown, a heritage village in the middle of beautiful mountain scenery, only a 30 minute bus ride from Queenstown. The main street, Buckingham Street, is lined with heritage buildings and lots of shops and restaurants. The town was formed in the 1860s rush for the Arrow River's gold. 1500 miners worked the river below the town. Many were Chinese, who built a separate village beside Buckingham Street near the river. After the gold ran out, the town became a fading rural backwater. It's resurgence as a holiday place began in the 1950s and luckily the historic old buildings were kept intact.
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| Old buildings on the Main Street |
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| Gorgeous setting |
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| Street art-- lots of galleries in the town |
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| Parking near the river |
We went into a newish gallery, where the artist had a studio. She did lovely work, incorporating Māori images and themes. Her name was Jenny Mehrtens, born in Dunedin, but living in Arrowtown now. She had just moved into this beautiful space six months ago.
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| New work |
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| Wonderful colours |
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| A 2017 piece |
Near her studio was the Dudley Cottage- a design store, where one could sign up to do gold panning.
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| Dudley cottage |
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| Gold anyone |
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| Old building part of the original Arrowtown Police Camp built around 1863. |
We then went to explore the Chinese Settlement which has been partially restored and partially recreated. There are a series of old buildings and very good signage about the community and its relations with the town folk.
The settlement existed from the late 1860s to the 1880s. By the turn of the century, it had been abandoned. Only the restored remains are there today. The signs noted that in February 2002, the NZ Government apologized formally to the Chinese community for legal discrimination against the early Chinese settlers.
Approximately 8000 Chinese came to Otago-Southland and West Coast goldfields. They came to make money and return home. Yet in the 1870s they made up 17% of the goldfields' population, 40% of its miners and, for many years, produced 30% of its gold.
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| Old outhouse |
Au Lum's store was the heart of the Chinese community. He was fluent in both English and Chinese. The building was restored in 1986 and is the only remaining 19th century Chinese store of the southern goldfields era.
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| This was the Arrowtown Chinese Settlement's last store. It closed after Au Lum's death in 1925. |
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| Old newspapers on the wall |
Most of the gold seekers came from the Cantonese province of Guangdong in South China. They came to escape poverty. There was discrimination and they officially remained unwelcome immigrants and were specifically excluded from New Zealand's Old Age Pension Act in 1898. Many of the old miners wanted to be buried in ancestral cemeteries in China. Fund raising allowed the dead to be exhumed and sent back to China. Tragically, the last ship carrying nearly 500 bodies back to China sank off Hokianga in 1902.
The story was told on a number of poster boards.
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| One of the posters setting out the history- both in English and Chinese |
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| Old shelters |
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| Very small interiors |
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| Shed and house built into rock |
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| Site of Ah Gums Hut |
After our tour through the Chinese Settlement, we walked down Buckingham Street.
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| Quiet historic town |
We stopped for a boysenberry, strawberry, and apple sorbet.
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| Definitely a message for the beautiful summer day we were having in Arrowtown |
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| Alain with our sorbet |
A bit further away from the shops were a series of old miners cottages, again beautifully restored.
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| Alain walking by the old cottages |
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| These were a mix of residences and a few stores |
We had a lovely day in Arrowtown. We caught the 5:06 p.m. bus back to Queenstown.
It was such a nice day, that we decided to have a drink at the New Zealand Winery. I had an Aperol Spritz, made with a sparkling Rosé that was delicious. Alain got a wine card, and then had two "taste" size tastes of a Sauvignon Blanc and a Pinot Noir. One hands in a credit card for security, then gets a card that one puts in a machine over a grouping of wines and then the card registers the price for the size of wine tasting that one gets (a taste, a half glass or a full glass).
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| My Spritz |
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| Alain getting his wine-- one puts the card in the machine then picks the size and price of the wine one wants |
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| Sauvignon Blanc setting |
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| View of the mountains near the beach |
We had a dinner booking at Blue Kanu, which our host had made. It was a fabulous restaurant with tastes of the Pacific.
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| Bar |
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| Place settings |
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| Local beer and papaya salad |
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| Beautiful shrimps with small rice puffs in the foreground and ribs in a hot mustard sauce in the background |
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| Cheers |
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| Sunset in Queenstown |
Our host, Jason, had been at a meeting downtown, and was kind enough to pick us up at the restaurant and give us a ride back to his place. We are really going to miss waking up to the beauty of this town. Definitely a must-visit in New Zealand. On Wednesday March 6, we head to Melbourne to start our adventure in Oz.
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