Today Maree and Maureen headed off to Arrowtown, Wilma and Buffy went to Milford Sound and Elaine stayed home to do an assignment (I know who had the better time). We left around 10 and walked into Queenstown and popped onto one of their bright yellow buses which took us to the Remarkables shopping Centre where we had to change buses. There we met a gaggle of quilters who were heading the same way. On the way to Arrowtown we followed the beautiful Remarkable Alps covered in Autumn Trees amongst the pine plantations. On arrival to the quaint town which had the most beautiful preserved buildings we went to the museum where we learnt about the history of the town and the gold mining industry. Did you know that they did not have banks in the early part of the gold rush and the police officer “minded” the gold in his tent along with his duties of cooking. It was discovered that he had $100,000 worth of gold under his bed. Soon a bank was built. We then went to a cosy tea house and had a lovely Devonshire tea. We then decided to do something totally different and went shopping!!!!! Such lovely shops in amazingly beautiful buildings. Looking down the main street to the residential area were golden trees aligning the streets – it was as though the streets were paved with gold. I bought these lovely sweets for the girls – they were marshmallow on a stick covered in chocolate fudge and rolled in 100's and 1000's. So decadent. It soon became time to head home so we went to the bus stop and there were many people there hoping for a seat on the bus. We were lucky. We then talked non stop with our new friends and shared our experiences. We found out that there is a Mary McKillop house in Arrowtown – she was there for a month and set up a school in Arrowtown. Apparently she visited New Zealand 4 times in her life. It rained on the way home and we saw the most beautiful and perfect rainbow – what a lovely ending to a great day.
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