Saturday 21 April. Queenstown to Lake Hawea

Original Chinese cottage. 1800's.

Arrowtown festival.

Headed off to Arrowtown this morning not knowing that it was the Arrowtown Autumn festival. Visited a historic Chinese settlement which was very interesting, especially for Harry given he’s learning about the goldrush in Ballarat.   The main street was blocked off due to all the stalls and activities.  There were rides for the kids, old fashioned cars, food and produce stalls and even a display where people could pan for gold, which is what put Arrowtown on the map.  They were using some gravelly sand from the nearby Arrow river and low and behold there’s gold in them there hills. The boys found a few good flecks which they got mounted at the local gold shop.

There be gold!

We then headed off to puzzling world which is a pretty cool place.  They have some pretty amazing  illusions.  Check out the one with the leaning chilly bin.  We did the maze at the end and after finding the four corner towers we couldn’t get out and had to use an emergency exit.  Not sure about the communal toilet block!!!

We them headed off to Lake Hawea via a local brewery to sample a few refreshing ales.  Got to our accomodation and it was packed as they were hosting an annual mountain bike race.  Finished off a good day with a pub meal and a few more NZ lagers.