Arrowtown

For my last full day in Queenstown (and New Zealand, for that matter!) I took a tour to Arrowtown, and old gold mining town. We drove there in an old London-style red double decker bus, making a few stops along the way at Lake Hayes, the K-bridge bungy site, and the Gibbston Valley Winery (which is also a cheesery – I didn’t even know that “cheesery” was a real word…)

As expected, the scenery along the way was gorgeous, plus it was a really beautiful day, at least in the morning.

Arrowtown is pretty small with just one main street, but there’s a really neat museum there all about the gold rush. Supposedly, it’s “the best museum in New Zealand” and they make a big deal out of the fact that Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip have been there. I must admit that it IS a pretty impressive museum, and I wish I’d had more time there, but we had to get back on the bus and head back to Queenstown.

When we got back, it was still a nice day (although getting a little windy) so I had a picnic lunch in a park next to the lake with walnut bread and cheese from the cheesery.

And soon after lunch it started to rain! So I spend most of the rest of the day reading and watching movies in my hotel room. At least the weather was nice for most of my stay!
So tomorrow afternoon I fly back to Sydney for one night, and then I head home for the longest day ever, which also happens to be Mom’s birthday. It’s been a great trip (and I’m not looking forward to the cold!) but I’m ready to go home and get back to “normal life.”