Arrowtown

This picturesque well preserved goldmining town from the 1860’s is at the foot of rugged hills about 20km from Queenstown.In 1862 a small group of miners found gold in the Fox River and within weeks had recovered 250lb of it.Now at todays prices that makes a tidy some of money for a few weeks work.No wonder the population of this little place shot up from nothing to 7000 on the hopes of striking it rich. It is also one of the few towns that didn’t become a ghost town when the good times came to an end and it is one that actually has managed to avoid modern development from its heart.

The tree lined main street has many old colonial buildings and you can let your imagination run away with ideas of claimholders paying in their finds to the bank and then going on to the many hostelries to enjoy the results of their labours before heading back to their small cottages to sleep it off.The town had its share of dubious characters who made a living off these prospectors

Arrowtown is also the site where Chinese miners are remembered for the parts they played in the early days of New Zealand.After the European miners had moved on after taking most of the spoils the Chinese , mainly from Southern China moved in to have their go at making a new prosperous life for themselves and their family sponsors back at home.The Chinese settlement here is a group of buildings that have been preserved as part of the attempts of the NZ government to make amends for the racism these people suffered during their stay.

I like to take a look through the cemeteries of these places because you gain a flavour of where the people came from and they give you some quite moving insights into how harsh and difficult life must have been for those early pioneers.I was interested to find no presence of the Chinese here and discovered that this was because they had been repatriated back to their homelands.It was a shame to discover that the last 500 never made it because the ship carrying their remains sank on its voyage back to China.

The Ford of Rivendell in the Lord Of The Rings story is the scene where the Great East Road crossed the River bruinen and under the power of Eldrond could be raised at will to repel unwanted visitors.

The film site is only just behind the centre of the village and is the scene where Anven ferried Frodo across the the river on her horse before calling up a magical flood to wash away the pursuing Nazgul horseman.In actual fact whilst filming the Fellowship of the Rings a flash flood did actually wash away part of the film set….spooky or what?