Arrowtown

After seeing the Pillars of the Kings and river Anduin we made a u-turn and headed back the way we came until we reaches the intersection of Cardrona Valley. This time we took the road to Queenstown. However before going into Queenstown yet, we made one more stop at a little town just before Queenstown called:

Arrowtown

Arrowtown is one of those former Goldmining town you can find all over the west coast of the South Island. However with one major difference: It kept almost its entire western town charm. Indeed, when you walk through Arrowtown's main road, you will be overcome by the impression that time stands still here and you are still in a 19th century goldmining story.

Arrowtown's main street

 And its inhabitants are cheerful and ever out of their houses. Arrowtown bursts with energy and life even till the late hours of the night. The main road is host to many old fashioned cafes and restaurants, all with seats outside on the street, where many gather for a cup of tea. But people also just stop here and there for a chatter that can take anything up to a few hours. If this sounds like the night life of an urban city to you, you'll be amazed that said main road stretches for nothing more than a mere kilometre.
We have never seen a town so small, being so full of energy and life.

We immediately fell in love with Arrowtown's charm. We strolled up and down the main road, drank tea at a cafe and browsed through the sweet little shops and boutiques on the way. Then we took a walk down at the river, which also offers a delightful stroll on either side. The river also keeps two secrets, being revealed in our next posts.

Chinese Goldminers

Finally down at the river, we noticed some signs indicating preserved settlements of old Chinese miners, that caught our attention. Wow! you really can see and enter the houses those old miners built. And signposts outside the houses tell the story of those people:
Once Arrowtown was bursting with life, because Gold was found nearby, attracting courageous people from all over Europe. But then the gold supply of the gold veins ran dry and the people started to leave Arrowtown. In a desperate attempt to save the town, the town council invited Chinese immigrants falsely promising heaps of gold, where in fact only ebbed out veins were. And the Chinese came. Many with little more than what they wore on clothes. They built little houses of wood and stone nearby the town and started looking for gold. The remaining European inhabitants looked at the Chinese with racism, fear and ignorance. The Chinese well aware of that always tried to stay out of trouble and kept to themselves. But the  the Chinese surprised everyone when by hard hard labour they indeed found gold, where others had already given up. Now to the feelings of the European people envy came along with the other prejudices. But other voices were also heard, speaking of the Chinese as fine, honourable and decent gentlemen that never wronged anyone, knew hard labour and good manners. And slow by slow some of the prejudices were overcome.

Bilge Rat especially laughed about one depicted episode, where a new paper reporter wrote about the little Chinese restaurant the Chinese had opened in their little settlement. He wrote: "In my whole life, I swear by God, I have never seen a kettle of such dimensions. The whole kitchen fills me with awe. The size of the cooking utensils, the quickness of the cooks, the smell and everything is out of that world."

Did that conclude our adventures in Arrowtown? Nay, only for the day, because the next day we visited the two surprises mentioned earlier being revealed later.

Goldmining

By visiting Takaka Hill we almost reached the northern top of the South Island. So from there we went all the way south to the southern end. And since the South Island stretches really far from north to south, that journey took a long time...

On the first day of our southwards journey we passed Greymouth. Greymouth was the Goldmining Mekka of New Zealand in the last century. The South Island, but especially this area attracted thousands of Gold Miners every year. Most of the towns on the South Island's west coast are former Gold Mining towns. In fact most of those towns started as Gold Mining settlements. Some were abandoned when the Gold thinned out, others remained.

We didn't spend much time in Greymouth though and went further southwards. However the journey is long and arduous and even your faithful travellers need to sleep now and then. So we made a stop near Greymouth at a little community operated camping ground recommended to us by our little South Island Camping Guide. The camping ground was in a small town called Nelson Creek.

abandoned gold mining equipment

Nelson Creek has its own story to tell about its Gold Mining past. Apparently a prospector called Nelson brought a bunch of Gold Miners to this point promising that Gold has been found in the creek. When the bunch couldn't find Gold for over one month they decided to go for the prospector and hang him. Just when they were about to carry out their chosen penalty, one of the Gold Miners, that had not yet given up, ran up to the settlement crying that he had found a thick vein of gold. After that the people were sorry and apologized and in the end named both the creek and the settlement and later township after their prospector.

there a some digged tunnels you can explore

old miner's camp site

Nowadays Nelson Creek remains a little village with a bunch of houses. Still they decided to throw their lot together and build and maintain this free camping ground (donations welcome) at the border of the creek. In the whole area remainders of the Gold Mining past can still be found. Old miner's campsites, tunnels, digging holes, bridges and lots more. But above all there is still Gold in the area. And as long as you use non-destructive, non-automatic, traditional tools like pan, shovel and pick-axe, you are actually allowed to scour the area for gold.

Behold our pointy sticks!

And so we did! Instead of the tools mentioned, however, we used pointy sticks. Not as effective you might think, but behold what we have found: