2 Best Sights in Arrowtown, The Southern Alps and Fiordland

Don't leave Arrowtown without dropping in to this small but very cleverly constructed museum. It gives a great insight into the history of the area, with artifacts of the gold-rush days and even a whole streetscape underground, complete with Victorian schoolroom, bakery, and blacksmith. There's also an information center, small bookstore, and gallery. You can even rent a pan for NZ$3 and get gold-panning tips to try your luck in the nearby Arrow River. When your patience frays and your hands go icy, keep in mind that a hobby prospector found a 10-ounce nugget in this very river in 2006. (He sold it on eBay for NZ$15,000).

In a less-visited part of the town is the former Chinese settlement. Chinese miners were common on the goldfields, brought in to raise a flagging local economy after the gold rush abated, but local prejudice from resident Europeans forced them to live in their own separate enclave. Some of their tiny 19th-century buildings, which have been restored, were built of sod, which endures well in the dry climate; others were built of layered schist stone, with roofs of corrugated iron or tussock thatch. Ah Lum's store (also restored) was built in a style typical of the Canton Delta region of China and operated until 1972. The settlement is a worthwhile part of any day-walk in the area.