Holiday: Day 29 – Arrowtown Revisited!

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6.30am: Hi everyone! 😉. Hard to believe, but we’re coming to the end of our New Zealand adventure! ☹️☹️☹️☹️. Thanks for all your questions, comments, and suggestions during our travels – every single one of them, very much appreciated! 👍😍

For those of you with a similar trip in mind, I’ll post a summary of this, our first New Zealand trip, on Day 33‘s Post. Yes, that right! Day 33, – we’re not going home just yet! 😎. Our next stopover is Singapore!

Day 29 – Where are we?
(Wednesday, 27th November)

8.45am: So, today, with packing and paperwork to sort out before leaving tomorrow, later, we’re going to take a ‘short and sweet’ but closer look at Arrowtown.

Arrowtown

For a clarification of where we are, Arrowtown is a historic gold mining town in the Otago region of the South Island. The town is on the banks of the Arrow River approximately 7.5km (5 miles) from SH6 (State Highway 6) and 9.5km (6 miles) to the east of Queenstown, where took a quick look yesterday. The gold rush was back in 1862 and although the Miners moved on long ago, what’s left behind is a quaint reminder of how things used to be.

Biking is a big thing here and so is skiiing with four ski areas between 20 – 60 minutes’ drive away. Those of you who know us, will know that’s not really our thing, and we’ll be spending time seeking out the cultural stuff including the local Museum, the Chinese Settlement and finally, the town’s War Memorial.

Lakes District Museum

12.32pm: The Museum isn’t much to look at from the outside, but once we got inside, there was a tremendous amount to see, cataloguing the short Gold Rush period of the mid-1800s, here in incredible detail together with the broader development of the town.

It was just 12NZD (£5.50) each to get in and well worth it! 👍. The building also doubles as the local Information Centre too!

Spread across two floors (the lower floor and a basement), the sheer number of exhibits on display explained the history in minute detail. We got around it in just under an hour and would have no hesitation in recommending it.

A fantastic insight! It was then a short walk to the nearby Chinese Settlement, one of 10 in the area.

Chinese Settlement

1.15pm: This was free to wander around.

In 1866 there were fewer than 200 Chinese working in the area, but by 1880, at the height of the rush for gold, the Census shows, 3564! 😯

By 1900, with the Gold Rush was truly over, most of the Chinese gold seekers here had ‘moved on’ – many having made their fortune and headed back to China. Their simple dwellings were left to decay for almost 100 years. Today, these have been lovingly restored but the first thing that hits you is how small they are…

It was good to see that the Town had made a ‘thing’ of this part of their history. Although the town wasn’t as busy as yesterday, there were plenty of folk doing the same as us and soaking up this essential part of the backstory of Arrowtown. More details HERE

Time for Lunch!

1.35pm: A late lunch for us today! Today, we chose the Fork and Tap.

The War Memorial

Our final cultural stop for the day (and for this holiday!) was the town’s War Memorial.

2.35pm: Like all the Memorials we’ve seen out here, this was in immaculate condition and had clearly been well looked maintained. It stands slightly elevated, giving it even more prominence over Arrowtown and is opposite the Town’s Cemetery.

3:02pm: We’re back at the Arrowfield Apartments for our final overnight stay. With just the cases left to finish and the flight check-in to confirm, we’re pretty much all set for the next leg. 👍👍

Tomorrow, it’s a busy one! First, we drop off the hire car at Queenstown Airport for 12 noon, and then it’s back in the air! We’re on the Virgin Atlantic Flight SQ6683 to Sydney with wheels up at 3.05pm. We land back in Oz just before 4.30pm, local time, before killing a few hours and then boarding Flight SQ242 back to Singapore for a final couple of days.

See you on the other side. Sleep well! 👍