Sadly it was time to leave Te Anau this morning. we have been here four days and got to know the town well. With trips to Doubtful Sound, Milford Sound and a drive to the south coast, we have made the most of the area, but it is time to move on.
So, today was mainly just a drive to Cromwell. However, on the way we made a stop for coffee at Arrowtown. In 1862 gold was found in the Arrow River. This attracted people like wasps to a jam sandwich and a town of around 1,000 miners quickly sprang up. At first it was called modestly named Fox’s, based on a claim by William Fox to have been first to find gold. However, that didn’t last long and it became Arrowtown. At the height of the gold rush the population rose to over 7,000, but with the decline in mining it fell fast to a low of around 200 in the 1960s. It has now re-invented itself as a tourist destination and retains many of the old facades of the buildings. It was an interesting diversion for a while, but we then continued to Cromwell.
Cromwell as a town has changed significantly, not least because most of it was flooded when the Clyde dam was built. Around a third of the old high street was rescued and has been rebuilt on the shores of the lake as a ‘heritage centre’, but the town is now better known as the fruit-growing capital of South Island.
