During the year, our Year 13 History class learned about the Central Otago Gold Rush and are completing a 10 credit large research internal on this. We had the opportunity to go down to Arrowtown to experience history first hand and gather information to help with understanding of the topic.

We are researching areas such as the discrimination against the Chinese during the gold rush, women’s roles, hardships for the miners and the impact of the gold rush on the New Zealand economy then and today.

We left Christchurch on Sunday 10 March at around 8:30am and hit the road excited to get to our destination. We had a couple of scenic stops on the way down. We stopped in Geraldine and Lake Tekapo where we looked at the Church of the Good Shepherd and enjoyed the beautiful scenery which was a treat. When we reached Cromwell we visited the Goldfields Mining Centre where we were given a private tour around the old machinery. We all enjoyed walking around and looking at the Chinese huts up in the hills and learning about how gold is formed in the area, and different types of mining over the years by the historian/tour guide there. We then arrived at our accommodation at the Arrowtown Top 10 Holiday Park where we stayed in a self catered lodge overlooking the colourful trees all to ourselves.

The next day we spent the majority of our time gathering primary sources at the Lakes District Museum as we had access to the archives and other resources that aren't always available to the public. A lot of students got their white gloves on and got to find original photos, diaries, old court recording books and many other interesting things!

We then managed to have a walk around the historic town and main street of Arrowtown for our lunch break and enjoy the scenery and beautiful weather that we had.

In the afternoon we were taken on a historic walk around the town where we saw things like the old gaol, churches and houses that were used in the late 1800s. We were also taken around the graveyard and the historic Chinese Village which was really interesting.

After such a big day we decided to enjoy some takeaway dinner in Queenstown where we sat and enjoyed looking at the stunning scenery of the area and Lake Wakatipu. Some students had never been to Queenstown before so that was nice for those students in particular to enjoy the sights and take it all in.

The last thing we did in Arrowtown before we left was trying our luck at finding some gold in the Arrow River. We all managed to pan for gold and were successful, an exciting way to end the trip. On the way home we all enjoyed a quick stop to look at Mount Cook on a very clear day through Lake Pukaki and then an early dinner at McDonald’s in Ashburton. I think everyone was excited to have a good nights sleep after a very busy three days and two nights down south!

A big thankyou to Mr Carter for all of your support and help to make sure this trip could go ahead and run so smoothly, we all appreciated everything that you did to ensure we had a great learning experience and a lot of fun.

Mrs Turner and the Year 13 History class 2023