Things to do in Arrowtown

What Arrowtown is, and how it got here

The town sits at 410 m where the Arrow River leaves its gorge and runs out onto the Wakatipu Basin, about 7.5 km off State Highway 6. The Māori name is Kā-muriwai; the river is Haehaenui. Within a few years of the 1862 strike, the easy gold was gone and many miners left for the West Coast rushes. In 1865 the Otago Provincial Council invited Chinese miners from the Victorian goldfields in Australia to rework the claims, and the first arrived in 1866. They were pushed to the edge of town, into huts along Bush Creek, and by 1885 that settlement had about ten huts, a hall and at least two stores.

What survives is unusually complete for a New Zealand gold town. St Paul's Anglican Church dates from 1871 and St John's Presbyterian from 1873; the Masonic Lodge was finished in 1888. The Chinese settlement was excavated from 1983 and is now run by the Department of Conservation, with about five huts rebuilt and Ah Lum's store, built around 1883, conserved. It is one of the few buildings put up by nineteenth century Chinese miners in Otago that still stands. The trees came later and made the town's modern reputation: avenues of sycamores, oaks and poplars that turn gold in autumn.

Things to do in Arrowtown

Half a day covers the town itself. The rest depends on whether you want to walk, ride, play golf or eat.

• Buckingham Street: the old shopfronts are now cafes, galleries, outdoor clothing shops and a small cinema. Walk it early or late; between eleven and three the day coaches and the Queenstown traffic arrive together.
• The Chinese settlement: a free walk along an old dray track at the top of Buckingham Street, flat enough for wheelchairs and buggies on the main path, with panels in English and Chinese. Twenty minutes is enough; it stays with people longer than the shops do.
• The Lakes District Museum: the gold rush, the Chinese miners and the early farming years, in historic buildings on the main street. It is the stop several of our coach itineraries build their Arrowtown visit around, and the best hour to spend if it rains.
• The Arrow River: the flat walk upstream from the car park behind the main street takes you past willows and old tailings. About 200 m up is the crossing used as the Ford of Bruinen in The Fellowship of the Ring, where Arwen carries Frodo across. People still pan the river here and sometimes find a flake or two.
• Walks with height: Tobins Track climbs steeply from the edge of town onto the Crown Terrace, about an hour and a half return, for the view straight down over the rooftops. The Sawpit Gully loop, about 7 to 8 km and two to three hours, goes up through old mining country to a lookout over Lake Hayes and back down the river.
• Cycling: the Arrow River Bridges Trail is part of the Queenstown Trail and runs down the gorge to the Kawarau Bridge, where you can carry on to the Gibbston wineries.
• Golf: there are three courses around the town. 1 of our itineraries play Millbrook, the resort course on the Queenstown side, and 1 play the Arrowtown club on the edge of town. The Hills is the third.

How to get to Arrowtown from Queenstown

The drive from Queenstown is about 20 km: out along Frankton Road, past the airport, then left off State Highway 6 past Lake Hayes, or up the back way on Malaghans Road through the Wakatipu Basin. Either takes about 20 minutes. The Orbus public bus, route 2, runs from Queenstown through Frankton to Arrowtown and costs $2 with a Bee Card, according to Destination Queenstown; it takes longer than driving because it goes the long way round through Frankton. Parking in town is free but tight in summer; the big car park is behind the main street by the river.

The Crown Range Road starts at Arrow Junction, just south of town, and climbs to 1,076 m before dropping to Cardrona and Wānaka. It is the highest main road in New Zealand, all hairpins at the Arrowtown end, and in winter chains must be carried and the road closes some days after snow. Coming from the West Coast, it is the obvious last leg into Arrowtown, and the lookout at the top of the zigzag gives you the whole Wakatipu Basin laid out below.

Is it better to stay in Queenstown or Arrowtown?

For most people, Queenstown for the first nights and Arrowtown as a day trip, and that is how most of our itineraries do it. Queenstown has the lake, the gondola, the jet boats and the coaches to Milford Sound, which mostly leave from there. Arrowtown has a quieter evening, a town you can walk around after the day visitors go home, and prices on the Queenstown end of expensive rather than below it. If you have a car and have been to Queenstown before, sleeping in Arrowtown is a good trade: you are 20 minutes from everything and nowhere near the traffic.

Of the itineraries that do stop overnight, 5 stay one night and the rest two or three, and the next stop is Queenstown on 5 of those passing through. Our guide to Glenorchy and Arrowtown compares the two classic day trips from Queenstown, and the 7 day South Island itinerary shows where an Arrowtown afternoon fits.

When to go, and the autumn colour

Autumn is Arrowtown's season. The trees turn in April and hold into May, and the Arrowtown Autumn Festival runs in mid April and has been held every year since the mid 1980s. That fortnight is also the busiest the town gets outside January, so book beds early. Our guide to New Zealand in April covers the rest of the country in the same weeks.

Summer is hot and dry, with long evenings and busy streets. Winter is cold, with hard frosts in the mornings and clear days; four ski areas are within 20 to 60 minutes' drive, Coronet Peak the closest, which makes Arrowtown a quieter place to sleep for a ski week than Queenstown. Spring is green and quiet, and the best time to walk the hill tracks before the heat.

Where to stay in Arrowtown

The two properties our itineraries use sit at opposite ends of the choice. Millbrook Resort, on 1 of them, is a large golf resort on the western edge of town, a drive rather than a stroll from the main street, and the obvious base for the golf trips. Arrowtown House Boutique Hotel, on 1, has five rooms and breakfast included, and looks out over the Arrow River valley. Otherwise the town has motels, a holiday park, bed and breakfasts and a great many holiday homes and restored cottages to rent, and not much in between.

If you want to see every itinerary that stops here, the tours through Arrowtown are filtered for you, from NZ$3,480.