Straight to Arrowtown

Dinner last night involved doing some driving into Point Arthur along pitch black streets with only the feeble headlights of the Corolla to help. Needless to say we missed the place we were aiming for and ended up having dinner at the place we parked at, The General Kitchen and Bar. They do love their pizza around here, everyone sells some version with the genuine gourmet wood fired pizza oven©. And as usual, it was fine. Definitely needed a lot more seasoning and livelier cheese. As is customary in NZ we had to eat with our hands like beasts.

Afterwards we saw some pretty impressive skies, which I haven't seen for years. Definitely appreciated the lack of streetlights for this. 

We decided the luge will wait until Tuesday for a bunch of reasons so we were headed for Arrowtown instead. Stopped off at Gantley's Tavern for breakfast, and was directed to the far end of the place away from the noisy throng watching some sort of sports on TV. Maybe rugby, given the sounds on whistles and shouting. I really couldn't care less, but it did mean we got to meet Tui.

Breakfast was standard, pretty great hollandaise and the usual greenery that was flicked off. 

Some sports watchers brought dogs along, and Tui here decided we seemed to be easy marks for treats. Well, I was but Louie wouldn't let me.

I know her name was Tui because her owners kept on calling her. She doesn't know that's her name because she took zero notice of them. Good girl.

The site of my shame. I got a parking ticket here, not because I didn't pay. It's because in my pre-breakfast brain autopilot mode I entered my car's licence plate, not the rental car. Bugger. Anyway, this is Arthur's Point where we are staying.

A short 15 minute drive away is Arrowtown, mostly a street of shops that cater to the tourists who come for the shops. Gold, greenstone and tat for the most part. And Remuera tractors that have a chance of actually being used as a 4WD. Or at least getting slightly muddy. 

The two main historical parts of Arrowtown includes an old Chinese "township" that had about 20 buildings. All are long gone but they have built replicas. For a place that could have been quite rubbish, they did a good job of presenting the history and the people.

Weirdly, the entire reason they were here - the gold panning seems to have been forgotten. There wasn't anywhere along the stream that talked about what or where they did it. Bits of rusty ancient gear were half buried but not even a sign.

There was one X marks the spot where some Māori chap found the first nugget, but even that is a bit sketchy since the local tribes knew about the gold for centuries but had no use for it.

After a fair stack of walking it was time for some sitting. We tried a couple of places & ended up at Provisions of Arrowtown. Bloody Rip-off would be a more accurate name. Nice view of Coronet Peak though. The black bits on the left hand side of the snow is the top of the ski lifts.

18 bastard dollars for this (plus one more that I ate before I remembered to take a pic). Not shown is the pie Louie had that had been reheated to a dark char. One to avoid. 

Last stop was the museum and art gallery. They had the design, painting and photography portfolios of the local High School on display which was really cool, and you got to vote for your favourites. The woman behind the main desk couldn't tell us what happened to the winners, and didn't seem to understand there was voting.

Confusing art displays and an ice tunnel entrance for no adequately explained reason aside, the museum was pretty damn good. It mostly focussed on the settlers, gold and the removal of frost bitten fingers. Spread over two levels, they had a bunch of activity for kids, loads of diaramas and mock ups of scenes. And at least three pianos with their lids open and "do not play" signs on. Which is three signs too many. 

The Bank stables. Nope, no idea why the bank had stables. Fairly impressive setup though. 

This bloke got around a bit. From giving everyone a surprise when the poked their head into the bar, to the printing press, bakery, blacksmiths and stables he was a busy chap. Or maybe they got a bulk discount on the same mannequin.

I know I'm no longer a spring chicken but it's a bit on the nose to include a type of phone I used to own in a vintage printing press mock-up.

Top marks for the comedy genius, and yes it was a mine of information. Looking at the poster I have no idea why there was a diving suit on display. 

We got some hefty priced fudge at the Arrowtown candy store, this is the Jelly Tip version. Kind of tasted like the real thing too. At $9 for a 80g square, you'd hope so!

After getting home and putting our feet up (hitting double at least half the steps and calories burned each day so far) we headed into Queenstown for dinner.

Here is the kitchen for the place we didn't have dinner at, Flame. Loads of ribs and steaks being cooked, but sadly it was all booked out and we had to wait 90 minutes for a table.

Instead we wandered and ended up at a Latin American place, and they had proper Gurana as well!

Various meaty pastry things. 

After our Brazilian snacks we headed over to tick Ferg Burgers off our to-do list. It was a 20 minute wait until we ended up eating so it wasn't that bad. 

The burger was okay. For a flame griloed burger with pickles and mayo, a Burger King Whopper is better. Quite dry and low quality beef, plenty of fatty / gristly bits but nothing as bad as what I spotted while we were eating. 

For a place that is so busy and popular, you'd think they would be a lot more onto it with their hygiene and quality. All these dusty areas were over the food preparation areas. That's going to be fun putting into a Google Review!

One final stop before heading back, we stopped into the Captains Bar for some very un-blokey drinks. After two meals and heavy drinks it was an uncomfortable drive home.

Tomorrow it's supposed to snow so it's up to the ski fields for some ill-advised shenanigans!