Arrowtown

Gold was found in the Arrow River in 1862 and the town went up fast, then stopped. Buckingham Street kept its row of low miners' cottages in stone and timber under trees that now overhang the whole street, and the scale is still that of the 1860s. At the western edge, along Bush Creek, stands the restored Chinese settlement: a dozen small huts and stone shelters where Chinese miners lived and worked ground that others had already turned over, kept deliberately spare rather than prettified. The museum in the old bank fills in the rest. Panning is still allowed in the river, and tracks run up the valley towards the ruins of Macetown.

What you actually see

• Buckingham Street - the row of 1860s miners' cottages under old trees.
• The Chinese settlement - restored huts and stone shelters along Bush Creek at the town edge.
• The Lakes District Museum - the town's history in the former bank building.
• The Arrow River - the gravel riverbed where panning is still permitted.

When to go

April and early May bring the poplars and sycamores into full colour and are the reason many people come, which also makes them the busiest weeks of the year. Summer is warm and green with easier parking. Winter is cold, the light goes early and the town is quiet in a pleasant way. The autumn festival fills accommodation across the whole district.

Honest expectations

Arrowtown has been thoroughly tidied, and the main street is boutiques, galleries and cafes rather than a working town, which flattens the gold rush atmosphere. Autumn weekends bring queues of traffic and no parking within reach of the centre. The Chinese settlement is a twenty-minute walk through small huts, not a village, and some visitors expect more. Prices track Queenstown's, without Queenstown's excuse.

Nearby

Queenstown, the Kawarau Gorge and the Gibbston vineyards are all within half an hour.