Private Arrowtown and Surrounds Tour from Queenstown

A gold-rush town and the country that made it.

Arrowtown is the best-preserved gold-rush town in the country, a place of tree-lined streets, stone cottages and a history that runs deep. Twenty minutes from Queenstown, it sits among some of the loveliest country in the region, and this half day takes in the town on foot and the two places closest to it, Ayrburn and Lake Hayes, each a few minutes' drive from the last.

The town comes first, at walking pace. Your guide tells the story as you wander, from 1862, when gold was found in the Arrow River and a canvas town went up within weeks, to the Chinese miners who settled on the edge of it and whose restored huts and store still stand by Bush Creek. Buckingham Street keeps its original miners' cottages, now boutiques, galleries and cafes beneath an avenue of trees, and the Lakes District Museum is there for anyone who wants to go deeper.

Ayrburn is a few minutes down the road, a farm first worked in the 1860s whose stone buildings have been restored and reopened as a cluster of restaurants, bars and gardens along Mill Creek, each named for the job the building once did: the Woolshed, the Dairy, the Manure Room. It is the newest address in the district and already among the most talked about, and it is where the morning or afternoon tea that comes with the tour is taken, at a table in the gardens when the weather allows.

Included in your tour

• Private luxury vehicle and dedicated driver-guide
• Door-to-door hotel pick-up and return
• A guided wander through Arrowtown
• Ayrburn and Lake Hayes
• Morning or afternoon tea
• Bottled water

Not included: Lunch; museum entry, if chosen.

Optional upgrades

• A honey-spinning demonstration at a working bee and honey centre on the way out.