Relaxing in Queenstown

We did the 2 hour drive back to Queenstown this morning. It was another beautiful day, and Cheryl managed to stay awake for the entire drive back to Queenstown. We were a bit early to check into our last home, so we decided to check out Arrowtown, a small town about 20 minutes outside Queenstown.

Arrowtown was a booming gold mining town during the New Zealand gold rush in the mid-1800s. The town has maintained it's old western town feel with many original buildings. They held the Michael Hill NZ Open (golf tournament) in Arrowtown just a few days ago. Similar to the California gold rush, the NZ gold rush brought many Chinese from Quandong province to the area to mine for gold. We visited a restored Chinese settlement in Arrowtown and discovered that the Chinese gold miners in NZ experienced similar prejudice and discrimination that the Chinese in California experienced. However, it seemed less violent than the experiences of the Chinese in California.

From here we headed back to Queenstown to check into The Dairy, a private luxury hotel. It's was a very nice bed and breakfast, with a comfy lounge, library and honor bar. It's called The Dairy because part of the B&B used to be a corner store, which was known as a dairy. We lounged around, drinking tea and chatting with the folks who worked there. Then we headed into town to check out the shops and enjoyed a relaxing dinner at Amisfield Winery.