Arrowtown
Arrowtown – Buckingham Street
Gold-rush village that turns gold in autumn
- Hours
- Street always open; shops and museum keep their own hours
- Tickets
- Free to wander; museum extra
- Address
- About 20 minutes northeast of Queenstown; Buckingham Street is the main street
Arrowtown grew out of the 1860s gold rush, and Buckingham Street still has its run of old shopfronts with timber verandas, now filled with cafés, bakeries and wine shops. Walk down to the river end and you'll find the restored Chinese Settlement, tiny stone huts where Chinese miners lived, which makes plain how hard the goldfields were. In mid-to-late April the trees around town go yellow and red, and lots of visitors time their trip just for that. Panning for gold in the Arrow River is part of the fun.