Our trip through the lakeside towns of Queenstown and on to Wanaka took us on a small detour to the quaint village of Arrowtown. An old gold mining settlement that had kept hold of its charm.
The post office in Arrowtown (25th Nov 2013)
The wooden stores and pharmacy felt like we'd walked into a Western movie, with gold at the heart of its attraction both when the first settlers arrived as well as today.
Souvenir gold at Arrowtown (25th Nov 2013)
From the late 1860s to the 1880s this was one on the home of Chinese gold seekers - the remains of which can be explored today, providing a glimpse into the life and times of NZs first Chinese immigrants.
As the returns from gold mining declined they turned to garden produce for income with local resident Tin Pan (what an awesome name) selling regularly to people in the area.
Chinese gold miner house replica in the Chinese settlement (25th Nov 2013)
The river still contains a bit of gold (dust!)...we didn't go searching but is a beautiful setting along with the other lakeside towns.
Queenstown definetly had more of a buzz about it. If you had a lot of budget to burn then you'd sure have a lot of fun! We enjoyed the tame and free sights from the top of Bob's Peak and watching the many people that do a bungy off the historic bridge (a money making machine at $180 a jump!)
The view from Bob's Peak of Queenstown (26th Nov 2013)
Then on to the more peaceful Wanaka where we BBQd by the lake and enjoyed a chilled out evening on a sofa in Cinema Paradiso (all cinemas should have sofas!!!).
BBQ on the lakeside in Wanaka (27th Nov 2013)
We ended our West Coast lakeside tour with an unfortunate meeting with the most common of its wildlife...the sandfly! With the Anthisan close to hand we continued on up the coast to the Glacial region.
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