The rain has gone. It is a beautiful day, sunny and hot.
Today we had planned to take in Arrowtown before coming back to Queenstown to do a little exploring. On the way we came across a sign for a historic bridge so we stopped in to have a look. Prior to walking out to the bridge we met a couple of nice people from Christchurch that were just leaving. We ended talking to them for quite a period of time about the sights and sounds of New Zealand. Bruce and Esther are lovely people who invited us to give them a ring when we are in Christchurch. You can be sure that we will do just that.
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| Bruce Stanton and Esther Coleman |
The Shotover Bridge is a wooden structure that was part of the main highway and in use until 1975.
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| Wooden Bridge over Shotover River |
The view from the bridge gave us look at both of the mountains that support the major ski hills in the area.
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| The Remarkables, New Shotover Bridge, Peninsula Hill |
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| Coronet Peak, Shotover River, Crow Peak |
We left the bridge and headed for Arrowtown which was only a few kilometers outside of Queenstown. Arrowtown is an old gold mining town and during the peak of the gold rush reached a population of 7,000 people. Today is mainly a bedroom community for Queenstown and a great little tourist town. A lot of the original buildings from the gold rush era have been preserved and are used for cafes, retail stores, museums, etc. It really is quite a nice setting.
We drove back to Queenstown via the Shotover Gorge and it was a really nice drive. Kathy made me stop and take some pictures of both the drive and the gorge.
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| Shotover River |
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| Shotover Gorge |
Once we had parked and set up the van we walked to the downtown area of Queenstown. It was a beautiful afternoon to walk around the waterfront and take pictures. The town is surrounded on three sides by mountains and on one side by Lake Wakatipu. It is a very pretty setting.
We finished our walk and headed back for a late dinner and an early evening.
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