South Island Itinerary: Arrowtown and Queenstown

I only took a few photos in Arrowtown since I've been there before, but it was a little bit different having the snow on the mountain in the background. It's a cute little town, only a short drive from Queenstown, and we went through the museum there again. I was surprised by how much I had remembered from the last time - it's quite a good museum for the region.

Then we drove back to Queenstown and went on the touristy cable cars since we hadn't done them before. Definitely overpriced, but the views from the top overlooking Queenstown were amazing. It's just like the postcards! There's a Jelly Belly store up there and some jelly bean art on the walls which was fun. There was still some snow on the ground up there as well.

Handy guide to what you're looking at. 2,500 feet above sea level
and 1,496 feet above Queenstown

Crazy person bungy-jumping near the top

It's quite a steep ride up and down!

The view from our hotel in Queenstown was also quite beautiful. I definitely recommend getting a place with a view if you can find one. It was lovely in the morning with the sun rising and in the evening with pink skies and at night with the lights from the city.

 

Arrowtown

Our next stop was Arrowtown, a gold-mining town populated by thousands of Europeans and Chinese seeking their fortune during the late 1800s. It has gone to some lengths to preserve a lot of its Chinese history, with an outdoor mini-trail populated with signage and restored houses from the former Chinese settlement.

Lord of the Rings stops:
We visited the Ford of Bruinen where Arwen takes Frodo across the river to escape the Nazgul. It was definitely recognizable from the movie. We also walked through a forest to the Gladden Fields were Isildur lost the ring in the river.

The Lakes District Museum was worth the admission. Sure there were several grammatical and punctuation errors on the signs. But overall it had lots of interesting information and a basement area with an old carriage, teaching classroom, bakery and blacksmith room replicas, and mining equipment. It also didn't neglect the Chinese history of the area.

That was about it for Arrowtown. Next we drove to another LOTR location on the Kawarau River: the section of the Anduin River where the Pillars of the Kings (or Argonath) were digitally added. Right across the street was another great view of the river, from the bridge where bungy-jumping originated. A.J. Hackett Bungy is still operating and letting people jump off the bridge after forking over lots of money. We watched two people jump and were glad not to be them!