The Arrow River is just two minutes from town - simply hire a gold pan, walk down to the river bank and get started.
There is gold to be found and there are several places which hire gold pans and show you how to pan for gold. One has its panning troughs ready so you can pan for gold without getting wet toes!
Arrowtown is one of the fastest growing towns in New Zealand:
1948---------120 people
1989------850 people
2015----2600 people
There are two theories as to why the town is named Arrowtown. One is that the river behind the town flows swiftly like an arrow.
The discoverer of gold in the Arrow river was a shepherd named Jack Tewa or Maori Jack. He also won the Royal Humane medal for saving a man from drowning in Lake Wakatipu.
Arrowtown was originally known as Fox’s. named after William Fox an early gold discoverer. Then it was known as The Arrow and later Arrowtown.
There has been a fire station on the current site since 1890. The hand drawn hose reel was used until the 1940’s.
They used to sell Morphine in the local drug store. That was back in the goldmining days of course!
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