Lake District Museum, Sawpit Gully Track, Arrowtown Chinese Settlement
My second Pacific destination was New Zealand. Instead of going from North to South, I decided to do it the other way around. Landing in Queenstown, the view from that airport was probably the best I’ve seen so far. That was a really great start. Unfortunately, not too long after that came the bad things. The place I checked into for the first few nights turned out to be less than ideal, the sim card I bought at the airport was so complicated to activate that I ended up paying twice for the same package, and I just felt so bad to the point that I had a small meltdown. That was a really bad start.
Instead of exploring Queenstown, I decided to get out of the city for the day and take the bus to Arrowtown. This time, I was joined by another traveler I met in the dormitory. The views from the bus were quite beautiful, and I started to calm down and feel better. The bus dropped us off at the information center, which was also a museum. Curious to see what’s in there, and not entirely sure if I’ll have the chance to visit the place later on in the day, I went inside. The entrance was the information center and an art gallery, and next to it was the entrance to the museum. Along with my companion, I paid the entrance fee and went inside. In the usual manner of doing very little research, I had no idea what the museum is about when I headed in. I was greeted by displays of various sizes, with a few signs providing details about them. As far as I could tell, this museum was telling the story of Arrowtown in its early days, how and why it started, who came into the town, and how it changed over time. There were a few different rooms in the Lake District Museum, with each of them displaying a different aspect of the life in Arrowtown. School, police station, bakery, blacksmith workshop, and few more. Each room had some items, portraying the life of the town back in the old days. And then there was also a section about gold mining. It seems that similar to Australia, New Zealand had its own gold rush which attracted people from different parts of the world. Perhaps it could’ve been better and more informative with a guide, but I didn’t have one, and wasn’t even sure if it was an option. I’m not sure if I rushed through it, or if the Lake District Museum just wasn’t very big, but it took less than an hour to go through it. I’m not sure it was worth the entry fee.
After reuniting with my travel partner for the day, we made our way toward the hiking trail. We consulted the map and started walking along the track to “Sawpit Gully”, which was recommended to me the day before. According to the map it was a loop, and I chose to do it clockwise. We started walking along the dirt trail, which was easy and pretty comfortable. From both sides there were trees and tall grass, with some flowers in different shades of pink and purple that stood against the green shades quite nicely. The road was pretty leveled for the most part, and despite the cold wind, there were very few clouds and no rain, so it was quite pleasant to walk around. Soon enough, we came across a stream of water which was flowing quite nicely, and competed with the wind to see who could generate more noise. The wind came and went in waves, but the water flow stayed consistent, and I started to find it quite comforting. At a couple of points there were signs which we could follow quite easily, although they didn’t say the distance or time to get to the peak of the trail.
And then we started going up. It wasn’t a steep incline, but we still had to go up, so it did require a bit more effort. I tried to slow down a bit, at times I stopped completely in order to catch my breath. My companion, who was fairly quiet throughout the day, seemed to manage it quite well. It wasn’t very difficult though, and we maintained a good pace. As we hiked our way up, we had nice views of the nearby mountains. Whenever I stopped to catch my breath, I had something to look at other than trees. As we kept going up, there were less trees and more mountains to look at. Eventually we were completely exposed to the elements, which really just meant I zipped up my hoodie. The sun wasn’t strong and bothersome, but the wind surely was. I would have preferred to be hot and sweaty rather than cold and windy, but I didn’t have a choice in the matter. We got to another sign, and a little higher up the road I noticed a bench. I hurried over, sat down, and looked at the view. The mountains, the lake, and the city, all could be seen together from that very spot. I probably could’ve stayed there longer, but I wasn’t by myself and the wind made it a bit uncomfortable. At that point the trail got steeper and required more effort, but soon enough we got to the highest point of the trail, which I could only assume was the peak of Sawpit Gully, as there was no sign to verify that. A bit higher from the bench, this point had a better view of the area, and I couldn’t help but smile. It wasn’t the best view I’ve seen, but it was still a really nice view.
After taking a little while to relax and enjoy the view, we started making our way down the other side of the gully. It started a bit steep, and very quickly became very steep, almost too steep. In hindsight, it was probably better to do the trail counterclockwise and go up on this very steep trail, rather than down. The progress was slow, and I tried my best to be careful and not fall down. The wind, a constant annoyance, was not helping at all. It wasn’t really strong enough to make me lose my balance, but I still hoped it would quiet down while I went down this steep section of the trail. The mountain view was still there, although partially obstructed by leafless trees, but I didn’t pay much attention to it, instead trying to focus on my next step. On and on, the trail kept going down, and I wondered when it would start to level and become easier to walk on. That which was granted, temporarily, when we were back in the forest, with trees and grass on both sides. It was only a short section though, and soon enough were back under the sun, down the steep road. I started to hear the rush of water flowing again, and then see the water. Me and my companion kept going down, and a few minutes later we were back by the stream we saw earlier in the day, on a leveled ground. From there it was an easy and casual walk all the way back to the starting point.
We finished the hike sooner than I expected, so instead of going back to the bus station, we headed into the nearby Arrowtown Chinese Settlement. It was, as far as I could tell, a park where Chinese immigrants built their home when they came into Arrowtown in search of gold and wealth. There were a few buildings in there, and a few signs telling the stories of the Chinese community that lived and worked in the area. It felt like a nice addition to the museum we visited earlier in the day, and provided a bit more information. Although the sign at the front said it would take around forty minutes to walk around the place, we did it in about half the time, and we didn’t rush it. It was still a nice little area worth exploring while in town.