Today over 30 Gore High geography students visited the Lakes District Museum and were given an expert talk by the Director, David Clarke. Looking at the changes in Arrowtown over time and the impact of people and tourism in the area, David explained how Arrowtown is leading the way in preserving its heritage.

Students were also given a tour of the Chinese settlement where issues of racism was discussed, as well as the hardships the Chinese settlers experienced during the late 1800's. The tour of the settlement highlighted how Arrowtown uses cultural tourist sites to generate a certain ambiance in the township which encourages growing visitor numbers.

Passive (golf, walks, cycling) and adventure (jet boating, bungy jumping, sky diving) based activities in the Wakatipu were brought to the students attention, as it shows how the Queenstown region has a focus on diversification for sustainable tourism. The positive and negative effects of tourism were also discussed, with students acknowledging that an obvious negative would be the impact on the environment.

We hope you found your visit worthwhile and it would be great if you could post us a comment about what you enjoyed during your visit of Arrowtown!