Our last full day had no pre-planned activities, just a chance to enjoy the scenery of New Zealand’s south island one more day. Unfortunately it was mostly overcast for the day, but there was no rain. All told, we probably had the most incredibly lucky streak of weather throughout the whole vacation…no extreme temperatures and negligible rain.
Back to Saturday though, the morning began with a run into Queenstown and through the town Gardens before heading out of town and back up the long hill to the hotel. After a late breakfast, we got a full day bus pass and rode the Connectabus into Queenstown and then out to Arrowtown, a small former gold-rush village further in the mountains.
(photo credit: DPH)
We arrived to Arrowtown just before lunch and walked the main strip doing a bit of shopping. The town consisted of only a couple streets of shops and then spread residential beyond. In the middle of the main strip was a town square (basically just a grass lawn between businesses) where some café’s had tables set around the perimeter. Being December and a Saturday, the town was having a Christmas celebration that included a variety of singing, dancing, and costume competitions. Among the highlights was the children’s carols, a can-can dance, and Santa parading through town in an old sports car convertible. To take in the show, we grabbed lunch at one of the perimeter cafes.
Some of the Christmas activities
After lunch, we considered checking out a movie at the boutique theatre which we were told included a full bar and easy chairs for movie viewing. However, none of the shows matched our schedule so we passed and instead wandered over to the preserved Chinese village. This area was mainly some informational signs and ruins of huts and gardens where the Chinese gold-mining immigrants had lived in the late 1800s. They were not accepted among the other gold-hunters so instead setup their own camp and eventually thrived by providing services and produce to the white gold-hunters. Near this same area was a shallow creek with a marker on the map that designated a Lord of the Rings shooting location. Darin and myself, both fans of the series, wandered over and recognized the shallow creek and rocky shore as the area just outside Rivendell in the first LOTR movie where Arwyn called the wall of water to wash the ring-wraiths downstream (Yes, I am a LOTR nerd), even though the area was totally unmarked. I confirmed this later in a souvenir shop book.
One of the huts 
The LOTR site (photo credit: Tom) 
Some popular flowers near the LOTR site 
Quick dip in the river to get back to the bus stop
Since there wasn’t much else to do in Arrowtown, we forded the creek back to the bus stop and caught the early afternoon shuttle back to Queenstown. Here, the couples each split to do their own thing until regrouping later to catch a shuttle for dinner. Susan and I took the opportunity to enjoy the scenery more by taking a short hike along the lake to a magnificent waterfall (drainage gulch). Once taking in the scenery, we climbed the hillside back to the hotel and relaxed in the room while packing for the imminent end of the vacation. The windown scenery made staying in the room for a while a nice activity.
Beautiful waterfall
In the evening, we regrouped and made our last visit to Queenstown to dine at the Pig and Whistle, a brew-pub in the town center. After the early dinner, we wandered the remaining shops we had yet to visit in the city and stopped at Slurp, the soup and gelato shop, and got the best gelato we encountered on the trip to cap off the evening. We were back at the hotel relatively early, but had to prepare for the marathon chain of travel that awaits us on Sunday. 4 flights, plus travelling back in time so that Sunday will last ~40 hours for us. All told, the vacation was a success, but I’m ready to return to the states and a more consistent routine. Plus, it’s time to see our dog again.
The family with our last taste of Down Under gelato
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