Queenstown: Arrowtown and hiking

After Milford Sound I got to sleep in.  My host had late night work, so I said chow to his sleeping form and I figured out where the best place to hitch hike was.  That ended up being in front of his house, at the bottom of the hill.

I got picked up twice.  Once by an English girl heading to the post office and then by an Indian couple on vacation.  When we got to Arrowtown, the Indian couple and me, we couldn't find it.  The usual tourist debacle.  Basically the signs were sending us in circles... but we found it after asking for directions and parted ways.

I though that Arrow town had a similar vibe to Fair Haven, except busy.  It had all the little shops and tourist just milling around.  What I loved the most was the stores all had the old mining facades.  It was cute.  I got myself a slice of fudge, then some quiche for breakfast from the local bakery, Cafe Mondo.  After a brief stroll around town I was off to the china town.



This isn't a commercial China town that you would find in major metropolitan areas, but a historically preserved area where the Chinese miners used to reside in Arrowtown.  These structure would have been situated on the fringes of the white camps.  The chinese were widely discrimanted durring the gold rush.  Because of this the chinese were much more likely to live together in a seperate community than that of the white settlers.    This was filled with tiny structures that the miners lives in and even a store that doubled as accommodation or a drinking den.  It also had extensive gardens at one point.  The Chinese were much more likely to create semi-permanent homes because they had the knowledge to do so.  The other miners were more likely to use canvas tents and only stay seasonally.

 Next on my short list was the Arrowtown river hike. I was surprised there were not many people on the walk.  I guess people went to arrowtown mostly for the shops and history, not the hiking.  I did see lots of locals with their dogs.

On the way back from the hike I saw a sign for Toby's path.  I thought that sound like fun, but when I got twenty minutes up I checked Google maps and saw how far away the end of the path was far.  I wasn't prepared to hike for another hour or two.  So I turned around and took lots of pictures.

Next stop was the museum.  you can't go to historicaly significant area and not visit the museum.  There was a group of students visiting that day.  I mostly avoided them, but I couldn't try any of the historical clothing because it had been reserved.  Bummer, I really like to dress in weird clothing.  I found the Museum quite fascinating.  It gave you all asects of the people's lives; from the crockery to the the infostructure that was used.  It even had a mini town replicated in the basement.

Gold!

firehose

telephone

a gold pan

mini town

I called it a day after I went to a few shops and tried my hand at hitch hiking again.  I met Tom. He was a nice elderly man from Fiji. He seemed a little lonely, but besides that we chatted away and when we got into Queenstown we had a beer together. He even went to the grocery store with me, since I didn't really know where is was.  At the checkout he tried to buy everything for me.  I wont have that.  Earlier my host tried to do the same, but I am already using their hospitality the least I can do is buy my groceries and maybe theirs as well. He also wanted me to see his house in Arrowtown and cook me a steak dinner. I politely refused. If I was traveling with someone else I would have probably said yes.  I think he just liked the company.  After the store he dropped me by my couch surfer's house cutting my walk time in half.

My night was a lot like my Waiheke nights.  I just made myself dinner. And something new for me, I got serenaded by the neighbor through the wall.  I'm sure he didn't know I could hear him.

My host and I woke up about the same time so we had coffee together before I went hiking. He had work and I was aiming at hiking up Queenstown hill.  The trail head was actually on the same elevation as house, just a few blocks over.  That made getting there easy but it didn't stop the day from being hot.  I was wearing layers, like usually, and stripped.  It was beautiful, but the knee injury returned.  I hate getting older.  Just go away.  I would love to take hiking seriously again.

before you even get to trail

trail head

just a quail, you know chilling

at the top of the loop

Korea has rubbed off on me

After the Queenstown Hill hike I stopped by the house for my knee brace then it was off to the Gondola.  I did a short hike there as well. 

After a relaxing day I decided going out for a drink would be a great idea.  I went to one of the local hangouts, but it was really too early and I wasn't to keen to stay out super late.  Socializing fail.  *Shrugs* It happens sometimes.