We had a leisurely start to the day and hopped a couple buses to get to Arrowtown, the site of the 1862 gold rush. Its population swelled to 7,000 and even had a separate Chinese settlement. The Chinese were subjected to ill-treatment but generally not to violence. In 1951, the population had dropped to 200, but it reinvented itself as a tourist attraction and now has around 3,000 residents. The attractive main street recalls an older era and several buildings in the Chinese Settlement have been preserved and have educational plaques posted.
We did an introductory loop of the town, ending at the Chinese Settlement and Sandy and I stayed to explore the general store and a few of the original residences. Rod had something he wanted to show me and Sandy went off to do jade pendant research for me. Rod had seen an Edmond Hillary red cap he thought I would like and told me the company was going out of business so it would become a collector's item. Many-time OAT travelers get a gift at the end of the tour and he thought I would like it, though it was a bit over his budget, so I made up the small difference.
Sandy rejoined me at the hat shop and announced that she had found some good options. As I had hoped, the choices were more extensive than we had seen in Queenstown and also less expensive. I found a stylized hook shape (one of 7 classical designs) and got it. In Maori culture, the hook symbolizes strength, catches good luck, and gives protection for travel, especially over water. It seemed quite appropriate.
We got a take out meat pie for lunch and went to a shop called The Winery which had outside tables where we could eat our pies. You provide your credit card and they give you a numbered card that allows you to select from dozens of bottles of wine and pour for yourself. You can choose 1 oz, 2 (maybe 3) oz, or 5 oz. I had 3 one-ounce pours with my spicy chicken pie and it only cost $8.60, a lot less than a tasting in Napa.
It was time to catch the hourly bus back to Queenstown (about 30 minutes away) and Sandy decided to stop for a hot chocolate there that everyone had been raving about. I opted for a small bonbon and a truffle instead.
We caught the bus to the hotel and started to pack for our trip to the Bay of Islands tomorrow. It is back on the North Island and we are catching an early plane to Auckland.
It is also the end of the main tour (the Bay of Islands is an organized optional post-trip), so we will had our celebratory Farewell Dinner at a large farm that we reached via an historic steamer this evening. The engine compartment was open to view from above and riders could walk through it if interested. The huge farm house has an enormous space that can accommodate a buffet dinner for 200 people with more tables for the buffet than I have seen before. The food was quite good, but I was disappointed that the meal was followed by a sheep dog exhibition in an outdoor unheated space that closely resembled the visit we made to a farm several years ago. Plus if I had been made aware of the plan, my attire would have been much more oriented to warmth than style. We survived somehow, but learned that our 9am flight is potentially going to be disrupted, which Rod predicted really meant that it would be cancelled.
No comments:
Post a Comment