Arrowtown, New Zealand
These pages have some of Queenstown's best activities & tours:
Arrowtown is just a short fifteen minute drive from Queenstown. The historic gold town of Arrowtown overlooked by the Crown Terrace and resting on the banks of the Arrow River, maintains its fascinating, original gold-mining town character. Arrowtown sprang up overnight when gold was discovered in the Arrow River in 1862. Gold miners in their thousands rushed to stake a claim, and many of them struck it rich.
These days, Arrowtown is just as famous for its golden autumn leaves.
The Arrow River is said to have been one of the richest sources of alluvial Gold in the world, certainly the richest in New Zealand and in the 1860s attracted a bustling population of rough gold miners from all over the world to Arrowtown.
Now Arrowtown is a major attraction for any visitor or photographer because of its beauty. It is a living historic gold mining town, with many of the original shops and cottages are still used today.
Arrowtown residents embraced the filming of the Lord of the Rings. The Ford of Bruinen was located just upstream of the town and 
it was here that Arwen Evenstar, daughter of Elrond, carried the injured and dying Frodo across the river on horseback with the Black Riders close behind. The gushing Arrow River and its bush-clad walkways is an internationally preferred site for location filming of movies and commercials. It's also a photographer's dream.
It is all only 15 minutes away from your Queenstown accommodation at Lake Vista and is well worth a visit.
The Lakes District Museum and Arrowtown Jail remain, as does the old cemetery and the Chinese village. It was not until 1869 that large numbers of Chinese began to reside in the Arrow district. Most were working in the Shotover and Arrow Gorges, although wherever Chinese stores opened communities began to develop. At least 2 such stores were established in Arrowtown by late 1869, and within a year the local newspaper 
recorded: "The Chinese element is beginning to be largely predominant here and a stranger entering the town during the usual dinner hour at noon, or at "knocking-off time" in the evening, would almost imagine that he was in a sort of miniature Hong Kong."