Damn, we love this place! Having had a couple of intense days already we decided to chill out a bit today. Linda caught up with some washing in the hotel's antiquated washing machines (she says there were only two settings - as there were in such models 30 years ago; I nodded sagely as if I knew what she was talking about) and I went into town to catch up on the last load of blog posts. At 
Margaret's suggestion we drove over to Arrowtown in the afternoon: a quaint one-street town in the Colorado frontier vein selling a variety of nick-knacks for the tourists. I'll cough to this now: I fell in love with a set of wind chimes so there went another $100 on an impulse buy. I shall be demonstrating my newly acquired tubular bells at forthcoming BBQs. While I'm on the subject of shops, this is a good opportunity to mention the Kiwi Timeslip, a phenomena oft repeated on our journeys but not mentioned in the blog 'till now. The trigger was a sweet shop in Arrowtown. In the window were all the giant kilner jars of boiled sweets that so relived me of my pocket money when I was a wee lad ("2 oz of pear drops, please, guv'nor") together with those sticks of banana rock and flying saucer sherbets (anyone remember those?). Other examples of the Kiwi Timeslip occur whilst driving; endless replays of 60's and 70's rock tracks (I even heard an old Split Enz track the other day - I used to own the vinyl album). All the jokes we used to hear about Kiwi hot news still exists (" today we have a report of a lost kitten", etc.). Anyway, I digress; from Arrowtown Main Street we did a Cultural Thing and had a tour of the old Chinese village where the immigrants arrived to search for gold.
I suppose we should have gone into town and painted it red (or, since we are still living in the 60s, a technicolour rainbow). However, the Coronet Alpine hotel has a very nice outside bar and an extremely pleasant and hard working bar maid. It was far easier to watch the constantly changing shadows on the face of the nearest mountain while the sun set behind it. By then it was too late to stir ourselves . . .
Margaret's suggestion we drove over to Arrowtown in the afternoon: a quaint one-street town in the Colorado frontier vein selling a variety of nick-knacks for the tourists. I'll cough to this now: I fell in love with a set of wind chimes so there went another $100 on an impulse buy. I shall be demonstrating my newly acquired tubular bells at forthcoming BBQs. While I'm on the subject of shops, this is a good opportunity to mention the Kiwi Timeslip, a phenomena oft repeated on our journeys but not mentioned in the blog 'till now. The trigger was a sweet shop in Arrowtown. In the window were all the giant kilner jars of boiled sweets that so relived me of my pocket money when I was a wee lad ("2 oz of pear drops, please, guv'nor") together with those sticks of banana rock and flying saucer sherbets (anyone remember those?). Other examples of the Kiwi Timeslip occur whilst driving; endless replays of 60's and 70's rock tracks (I even heard an old Split Enz track the other day - I used to own the vinyl album). All the jokes we used to hear about Kiwi hot news still exists (" today we have a report of a lost kitten", etc.). Anyway, I digress; from Arrowtown Main Street we did a Cultural Thing and had a tour of the old Chinese village where the immigrants arrived to search for gold.I suppose we should have gone into town and painted it red (or, since we are still living in the 60s, a technicolour rainbow). However, the Coronet Alpine hotel has a very nice outside bar and an extremely pleasant and hard working bar maid. It was far easier to watch the constantly changing shadows on the face of the nearest mountain while the sun set behind it. By then it was too late to stir ourselves . . .
3 comments:
Thanks for the postcard!
I remember the sweet shop well!!! We all had photos taken outside (why are you not surprised) then bought some sweeties - for me it was licorice.
I succombed to the jade in one of the jewellery shops-impulse buy too but no regrets.
You haven't commented on the drivers yet - any interesting experiences on those windy roads - or even straight ones?
The light over the Remarkables is amazing isn't it, especially with a cool beer in hand.
Looking forward to the next installment - we were very lucky with the drive from Queenstown back up to Christchurch - clear blue sky all the way so amazing views of Mount Cook. Lindis Pass is incredible. (but maybe you are going up the West coast next-to see the glaciers in which case you might just see a few clouds)
If you want to check out another Heritage hotel the one near Mount Cook (about 70 kms off the main road ) has the best views.
Best wishes from us all - keep having fun.
Glad you are enjoying NZ and its quaint little ways - we're exhausted reading about your exploits, especially watching the sun go down behind the mountains with something cold in your hand. We hear the Salmon Leap is about to go into receivership due to a slump in bar takings, so we're just off there now for the closing down bargains (end of bins) Bumped into Don W at the other pub we occasionally frequent. He says you owe him a beer and he's on the next flight out. When we can figure out how to use this contraption by ourselves we'll blog again. Until then - have a blast! Love and big wet ones from Denise X Kind regards from Him...
I know its a bit late but the wind chimes still worry me - had you been out in the sun without a hat again? Still its good to see you are both enjoying yourselves in a time warped sort of a way
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