Exploring the past

A visit to Arrowtown took up most of our day today. Arrowtown was the centre of a massive goldrush in the 19th century. The town centre retains almost all the old buildings from that time, and locals are now mining the pockets of tourists. Who get a very good deal from what's available and readily seen and experienced.

Before we came to Queenstown, Mr H was really keen to have time in Arrowtown to pan for gold, having been told about the possibility. Having one leg in plaster meant that he wasn't able to get into the river shallows and find gold there. However, for only a little bit of money, he and Young L and their mum were given a pan, some river gravel, and instruction on how to pan for gold. All three found a few tiny flakes of gold in the bottom of their pans after swirling the water around and removing the stones and sand. The gold was put into a little vial full of the river water for them to keep, and the boys each got a certificate of success as a gold panner. 

Then they looked through the old Chinatown buildings (slightly upriver from the town centre). Some of this involved going up steep tracks to get to the huts where the miners once lived. Despite more pauses than he would normally have had, Mr H managed to almost keep up with Young L; they are seen here together at one of the larger huts.