Week 8 - 15th Nov

Coronet Peak Ski Field – Coronet Pk, Arrowtown
Sunday Nov 15th, 2009
The drive up to the Coronet Ski Field is a short drive away from our campsite and the road is quite steep and narrow. I wouldn’t want to drive up it in the winter I’m sure. Alan and I drove to the chalet. The vertical is small only about 600 feet. It was quite cold on this sunny morning and it was snowing!

Our next stop was down the ski field at Skipper’s Creek. It seems that this area (Skippers Creek) started as a gold rush in the 1800’s. We would like to see what is there but the road says narrow, slips (washouts) but the all important information says “rental car insurance may be invalid past this point”. We park and walk a short part of the road. It is blustery and cold so we return and warm up in the car.

There is snow in the air so we decide to return to the valley floor where it is warmer.
Down at the bottom we drive to Arrowtown and walk to the river. There are cars everywhere and we are not sure why, but once at the river we find out. Many people are panning for gold in the river’s edge. It seems this river, the Arrow River, still releases significant quantities of gold, so many pan for gold on the weekend.

One fellow we talked to had a small film canister with nearly the bottom filled. One flat teaspoon he says equals 1 oz and pays $1500.00 NZ dollars. He keeps going and so do we.

Further up the river we find a group having lunch and also panning for gold. They have not had any luck and are done for the day.

Near the car park is a historic Chinese town. The Chinese immigrants were early settlers during the gold rush in the 1860’s. Many died trying and many of those that went home with gold, returned back to live out their lives in New Zealand.

After dinner we walk around to see a different view of the Shotover River. Instead of a steep gorge, it is a wide river bed of gravel that winds and heads toward Lake Wakatipu.