This is a day to take it easy physically. We both are feeling the hike of yesterday but of course that was to be expected. We will head off to Te Anau later today but first we are going to stop in at Arrowtown, the historically restored gold rush town outside of Queenstown.
We realized that this not Barkerville at all since it has been an established and existing town and has had the downtown restored to the store fronts for the gold rush era. Of course there are lots of things to be done like panning for gold, or walking along historical tracks by the river. What were missing in our comparison were the gold rush period actors and the stories. Having said this, it was worth stopping by and checking out the history of the area. This is the largest gold town in New Zealand at one time boasting a population of about 13,000. Heritage buildings have been restored and the quaint main street continues to look like had during the gold rush years.
As we left Arrowtown and headed off to Te Anau we went past an obvious Summer Fair being set up with cars parked along the highway for several km in both directions. Apparently today is going to be a day of horse shows, sheep shearing competitions, produce fairs and other types of agriculture displays. We thought about stopping but it looked like it would be a full day affair and we did not want to stay in the area all day.
The drive further south along the lake felt very much like driving along the Okanagan Lake. The road is relatively narrow and it follows the contours of the hills so it is very windy. However the views of the lake (as seen in yesterday’s pictures) are stunning even on a cloudy day.
After we left the lake behind we continued south for a bit and then turn north westerly up towards Te Anau and again the mountain views were worthy of pictures.
We arrived in Te Anau around 2 and got settled into the campsite on the edge of town. Then we heard about the harness racing on the street in town that was happening today so we headed into town to watch. This is a race that has a history in the town from before the roads were paved and is yearly event. To compensate for the pavement they bring in loads of sand and pour it on one of the streets which becomes the race track for the afternoon. The influence of British race days can be seen by the way many people have dressed up with the dresses, hats and dress jackets. Everyone is having a great day as they lounge around drinking and socializing jumping up in time to watch the next race or running off to place bets. For a small town this crowd looked like it was the event of the year.
We watched a marching band with bag pipes and drums as well as a couple of races where I attempted to get some pictures of the horses as they raced by. Trotters are beautiful to watch as they seem to simply sail pass with such a smooth gait.
Our day ended with us attempting to find access to the internet with our vodaphone service. No luck at the campsite, but if we drove into town we could park in the shopping parking lot and gain access which we did for our emails, but the blog will have to wait until later.
Tomorrow we are going to the Te Anau Caves to explore the caves and enjoy the glow worms. It should be an easy day.
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