Just 20 minutes outside of Queenstown, or about two hours from Lake Tekapo, you can visit Haehaenui Arrowtown, a historic gold mining town in the Otago region of New Zealand.
Pioneers descended upon the gold-bearing Arrow River in the mid-to-late-1800s and established Arrowtown at the height of the Otago gold rush. The buildings and gold rush-era history are all well preserved and updated to create a fun and family-friendly place to visit.
Arrowtown, known by the Maori as Haehaenui, is on the stolen and occupied lands of the Maori.
Top 4 things to do in Haehaenui Arrowtown with your kids
1. Walk down Buckingham Street
Buckingham Street is the main street of Haehaenui Arrowtown, lined with shops, restaurants, and history.
Stop into the cute shops, pick up postcards, grab a snack, and imagine what this town was like during the gold rush.
During the gold rush, Chinese miners were forced to live at the far end of town in a Chinese Settlement while the rich bankers and white miners lived closer to town.
This interesting piece of history is within walking distance of Buckingham Street and is surrounded by trails.
Take a moment to point out the racism of this forced settlement to your littles, e.g., “It isn’t fair that the Chinese miners were forced to live in mud huts along the river while the white miners were able to live in town.”
Walk or bike along the Arrow River Trail, a few minutes walk from Buckingham Street, and enjoy the beauty of this area.
Grab a map at the Lakes District Visitor Center and Museum on the main street.
The hike takes about an hour and is very flat. Be sure to apply generous portions of bug repellant, as there are mosquitos everywhere.
4. Pan for gold
~NZ$10
Yup, there is gold in the river!
Pick up a gold pan from one of the shops near the river, like Arrowtown Curios, and take your little one down to splash around in the water while you try to strike it rich—with gold, not mosquito bites.
Good luck with that…
Where to Eat
This adorable little house-turned-restaurant was exactly what we thought it would be: super cute on the inside and super yummy!
The food was delicious and the service was fast and friendly. It is located right on the corner of Haehaenui Arrowtown’s main street so you can people-watch while you enjoy your meal inside or on the beautiful patio.
Open for brunch, snacks, or dinner, we decided to have an early toddler-time dinner and eat indoors.
The menu is updated often, but if it’s there, I would recommend their fish and chips (NZ $28).
Something Sweet
The Shed Ice Cream Parlour Takeaway
Along Buckingham Street is a little ice cream shop, The Shed Ice Cream Parlour Takeaway, which has all your favorite New Zealand ice cream flavors at the ready.
We grabbed a scoop of hokey pokey, a NZ favorite ice cream flavored with chunks of honeycomb, to enjoy as we wandered the historic street.
Where to Stay
Haehaenui Arrowtown has Airbnb options for all budgets.
We stayed in “The Wooden Box of Arrowtown” Airbnb.
This cute and modern loft space was the perfect location for us. It was close enough to walk to Haehaenui Arrowtown’s main street and trails and had a market within walking distance.
The loft space was attached to the main house, so you hear the family next door a little and have to keep it quiet if your toddler has an early bedtime and the adults decide to stay up a little later. These were both non-issues but something to keep in mind if you’re interested in booking this place. We were especially grateful for the washer and dryer!
Pro-tip: Watch out for little feet in the slippery shower!
I grew up in California. To me, Haehaenui Arrowtown felt very similar to the historic, gold mining towns of the California Sierra Nevada. As we wandered the streets of this gold mining town and learned more about the history of how BIPOC folks were treated during its peak, we wondered where those communities are now. While wandering around Haehaenui Arrowtown and most of the South Island of New Zealand, majority of the New Zealanders we met were white.
It was interesting to learn about gold mining in another part of the world and to see how similar the history is to that of my home country and state. I appreciated that this history was clearly marked and preserved, and how welcoming and friendly everyone was to my family as we wandered down the main street, along the trails, and into restaurants and shops.
Overall, Haehaenui Arrowtown was a very safe and welcoming place to visit for our family and a good stopping point for us on our way to Queenstown.
This post is part of a series of posts about visiting the South Island of NZ with kids. Continue the adventure with us here:
Puerto Rican & Indigenous mama of two. Bay Area native. Salsa dancer. Backpacker. Doula. Angel (she/her/hers) is a co-founding member of the Beautiful Brown Adventures team. She has traveled to over 30 countries and loves to explore the world with her two daughters & partner - one ice cream shop at a time.
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