Arrowtown

Chinese Settlers   

Steam Boat

Arrowtown Museum

Original Settlements
 

Pre European Maori hunter gatherers visited the region to enjoy the weather and gather food from the lakes and rivers.

1860s  Gold*  bought the first rush of modern people to this zone.  Fortune seekers swarmed from the goldfields of California and Victoria. Many too came directly from Ireland, Scotland and southern China where deadly famines raged. 

Despite the deadly rivers, steep mountains and dry desert lands the settlers built ever improving trails to the gold fields making the areas capital and port town very rich. 

1910s  50 years later the "easy" gold was gone. Mechanical dredges began to work the rivers, then they too gradually vanished and most people left the area leaving only a few communities to support the impoverished farmers.

After WWII the area took on a new life with tourism and has continued to grow with Tourism.

Today we see the stone huts, ghost towns, and torn landscapes along the riverbanks where the gold used to be.   Museums, artefacts and historic attractions bring back those hard days and their people for visitors to experience.

Kawarau Gorge