Bungy Jumping:
AJ Hackett was the first Kiwi to come up with the idea of getting people to part with a large wad of cash to dangle on the end of a thick strand of latex. His original, and most famous, bungy site is at Kawarau Bungy 23kms. east of Queenstown. We went to the free Visitors' Centre first to learn more than we thought there was to know about bungy jumping, before heading for the viewing platform in time to see 4 single and one double jump. A single jump costs $NZ 180 rising to $NZ490 for a Family Jump (!).
They are obviously trying to diversify (a bungy trampoline ).....
....but there's still plenty of the real thing on view.
Arrowtown:
Next stop Arrowtown, and one of those Kiwi number plates again.
The town was originally named after William Fox (an American who discovered alluvial gold in the Arrow River in1862). Fortune-seekers flocked there in the 1860s and the Arrow River became known as the richest in the world for its size. Sixty original miners' cottages remain on the Avenue of Trees, named after the sycamores and oaks planted in 1867. These unusually small cottages, reflecting the shortage of timber at the time, are still private residences today so it's not possible to go inside them.
We found the nearby Arrowtown Chinese Settlement much more interesting.
The Centre commemorates the importing of Chinese labour to replace those Europeans who had moved north to the new gold finds at Greymouth and Hokitika. By 1870 there were 5000 Chinese labourers living in Arrowtown, the vast majority of them unskilled, uneducated and poor. Their dream was to make their fortune and return home to the families they had left behind, but 1 in 7 of them died working in Arrowtown. The majority did eventually make it home but with no fortune to show for it.
Archaeologists began work in 1983 and have recreated the settlement that those who remained in Arrowtown inhabited.
There are a number of recreated small huts:
The best-preserved building is Ah Lum's Store, built in Canton-delta style in 1883, and leased to Ah Lum from 1909 to 1927. He sold European as well as Chinese goods, and operated a bank and opium den (opium was legal in New Zealand till 1901).
The recreation of the Chinese Settlement is obviously partly an act of atonement by the New Zealand people for the appalling discrimination shown to the Chinese settlers. Not only were they forced to live segregated from the main mining community, they were paid only half the going-rate and were even subject to a punitive poll tax imposed on foreign settlers.
WANAKA:
Getting There:
We were now driving through the lake district of South Island, with one stunningly beautiful lake after another. All were virtually deserted with few houses or even anglers to be seen.
We came across a torrent of raging water called Roaring Meg and stopped to take some photos. There is some debate about the name,but the most intriguing version centres on a gold prospector who had some problems carrying a less-than-happy woman he had picked up at the local bar (aka brothel) across the raging water.
Click to hear the roar
Wanaka is only 55kms. northeast of Queenstown as the crow flies, but it takes an hour and a half by road to get there. Everything we had been told about its warm, dry climate and under-commercialisation turned out to be true. On the shores of Lake Wanaka, it's at the point where the poplar-studded hills of Central Otago meets the peaks of the Mount Aspiring National Park.
There are plenty of extreme sports on offer but we were quite happy to settle for a walk alongside the lake.
The local kanuka trees have declined in number over the years and there is an effort being made to encourage and protect them.
This is wine-growing country too, as evidenced by the vineyards we passed. These grapes were draped in netting to keep birds off as they were ripe and ready to be picked.
No comments:
Post a Comment