A school group all the way from South Africa visited the Lakes District Museum & Gallery this morning!!

33 senior high school students from South Africa were very enthusiastic about their visit to Arrowtown this morning. As geography students, they could all see that visiting the Wakatipu region was a valuable learning experience about the cultural processes of tourism. The students were given a short tour of the museum, which was then followed by a geography presentation. During the presentation we discussed the glaciation of the area and how it formed our beautiful landscape and how it made our rivers a source for alluvial GOLD! We also discussed why people visited the region, activities on offer here in Queenstown, as well as the positive and negative effects tourism can have upon the Wakatipu region.

Their visit finished with a historic walk of Arrowtown, where I locked students up in our Old Gaol and let them in on the secret of Mary Cotters tree...

Enjoy the rest of your visit everyone - have fun luging and bungy jumping!

Comment below about your visit to New Zealand and about some of the tourist activities you have enjoyed.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter break this weekend - what a great way to start the school holidays!

Arrowtown and the Lakes District Museum were exceptionally busy over the weekend as visitors came into the area to enjoy the long weekend.

What did you end up doing during the Easter break?

Comment below!

Timaru Girls High were our last school booking for term 1! Phew - what a fantastic and busy way to start the school year.

These history students were interested in using our archives for research and to take advantage of our resourceful library of books. Some primary resources the girls found really helpful included a gigantic burial register book from the 1800's. This book helped the girls understand the living conditions on the goldfields through examining causes of deaths. Another primary resource was the Wardens Court Case book which was used in Arrowtown during the late 1800's as well. This book gave the girls real insight into law and order, and the typical crimes and punishments around this region.

The girls also enjoyed a historic walk of Arrowtown and a quick tour of the Chinese settlement. I hope you gained lots of information girls! Comment below about your visit to the museum!

The Gallery at the Lakes District Museum is a hive of activity today. The Museum Director, David Clarke and our museum board members are currently working together to help install the annual Autumn Festival Exhibition!

The annual Autumn Festival Art Exhibition has opened Arrowtown’s Autumn Festival since 1984. This exhibition hosts the highest caliber of professional and amateur artists from around New Zealand. The variety of works in this years exhibition is incredible as we have seen submissions of sculptures, paintings, pottery, and plenty more!

This exhibition will run from the 25th April 2014 until the 25th May 2014, so make sure you drop in for a visit to check out works produced by up and coming artists as well some more established artists from around the region.

Its been a full on start to the new week, with a new exhibition install for our annual Arrowtown festival here at the Lakes District Museum. The busy start also included 41 year 13 students from Linwood college visiting for our senior students Geography presentation.

We split the students into two groups to accommodate for the large student numbers. I spoke with one group of students about the different periods of tourism here in the Wakatipu region, whilst the second group explored the museum. We then swapped groups and I spoke to the second group - PHEW! The students and the teachers found the visit very valuable as it linked directly with an assessment they were focusing on at school.

The highlights of the talk included some historic tourism photographs of a horse and carriage coaching into Skippers Canyon. The students were also surprised to hear about a past tourist activity called Fly By Wire, which was the fastest ride in the world at the time as it reached speeds of up to 170 KPH.

Can you remember why people originally came to the Wakatipu region?

When the first tourists started arriving in the late 1800's, what activities did they enjoy?

What has been a highlight of your visit to Queenstown?

Answer my questions or comment about your visit to the Lakes District Museum below!

Wow! It's great to see that another week has been and gone at the Museum, with it being jam-packed with students visiting! We had a fantastic Friday finish with 29 year 13 senior history students from Lincoln, who spent the day researching here at the Lakes District Museum.

All of the students had a specific focus on the Chinese settlers who came during the 1860's, and about the causes and consequences for the Poll Tax that was enforced upon them. A lot of the Chinese settlers were eager to make the big move to New Zealand as China was suffering from famine, and poor working conditions, and low wages. Any money found on the goldfields in New Zealand by the Chinese settlers could be sent back to China to help their families back home.

BUT On arriving into New Zealand, a lot of the Chinese settlers soon discovered that even though they had been invited into New Zealand, they weren't welcome. A lot of unfounded resentment was geared towards the Chinese. A fear of economic competition was one reason why Europeans struggled to accept the Chinese settlers into their community. The European settlers also struggled with accepting Chinese culture, which was strikingly different from their own. Religion, leisure activities, traditional holidays, and smoking opium were some of the differences that the Europeans struggled to accept. This led to the The Chinese Immigrants Act of 1881. This act was created specifically to limit the amount of Chinese settlers arriving into New Zealand. The number of Chinese who could arrive on one ship was limited to one for every 10 tons of the vessel’s weight. A poll tax of £10 was also imposed on each Chinese person entering the country. In 1888 the ratio of immigrants to ship tonnage was cut to one Chinese person per 100 tons. In 1896, it was halved to one per 200, and the poll tax increased to £100.

A positive consequence of this Poll Tax was a formal apology by the New Zealand government in 2002. At a Chinese New Year celebration on the 12th February, Prime Minister Helen Clark made this statement:

"I wish to announce today that the government has decided to make a formal apology to those Chinese people who paid the poll tax and suffered other discrimination imposed by statute and to their descendants. With respect to the poll tax we recognise the considerable hardship it imposed and that the cost of it and the impact of other discriminatory immigration practices split families apart. Today we also express our sorrow and regret that such practices were once considered appropriate."

If you are interested in learning more about our Chinese Settler History check out the Te Ara website.

Do you think a formal apology by the New Zealand Government was the right move?

How else could New Zealand formally apologize and amend what has happened between the two countries?

Answer my questions and comment about this blog post below!

Gore Main School sent 26 of their fabulous and energetic year 6 students to visit the Lakes District Museum. To explore the past this is what these students got up to:

• A museum visit which included handling artefacts and exploring the museum. Students got to handle a Moa bone and they also got to check out our infamous long drop display!
• A historic walk of Arrowtown, where students went inside the Old Gaol during the historic walk, students also sketched Buckingham Street and used it as an opportunity to think about how the street has changed over 150 years.
• A tour of the Chinese settlement, where students went inside Ah Lums store and learned about his ghost ... At the Chinese settlement we spent more time sketching, and the students used that time to really think about the minimal building materials the Chinese settlers used.
• Gold Panning at the Arrow river! I taught the students different methods of gold panning, and helped some lucky students even find gold! I wonder if skipping around Mary Cotter's tree helped?!

What was your favourite part of your visit to Arrowtown?

What was the type of gold that was found in the Arrow river?

What was something new you learned during your museum visit?

What were the Chinese huts built out of?

How has Buckingham Street changed over 150 years? (think about what the early settlers might have used for transport)!

Answer my questions and comment about your visit below!

57 Year 11 students from James Hargest school traveled up from Invercargill to visit the Lakes District Museum & Gallery and to conduct a traffic survey of Buckingham street.

The students were very lucky as David the Museum Director made himself available to give the students an expert talk about the history of Buckingham street, and the surrounding issues of tourism, traffic flow, cars, and foot traffic.

After the gold rush, the Arrowtown population gradually dwindled until there were only about 120 people living in the town during the 1950's. Luckily the popularity of owning "cribs" or holiday homes in Arrowtown helped the township stay alive. At one point, Arrowtown had the fastest growing township in New Zealand for a period of time. Today, Arrowtown has a population of about 2600 with about twice as many visitors during the peak of our tourist seasons during Summer and Winter.

Obviously issues that can accompany a small town with a large visiting population, is what do we do with cars and traffic? Where should people park? What should be pedestrian access only? If changes are made how will that affect the infrastructure of the town? These are the questions the James Hargest students focused on during their visit to Arrowtown.

What are your opinions about cars and traffic in Arrowtown?

Do you think Buckingham street should be pedestrian access only? Why? Why not?

Answer my questions and comment about your visit to Arrowtown below!

Senior History students from Waimate High School  visited the Lakes District Museum for 2 full days to complete research for their History assessments.

With access to our archives, and our library of books categorized to suit their focusing questions - the students have an information overload! Their visit also included a historic walk of Arrowtown, a tour of the Chinese settlement, and full access to our Museum. During the historic walk of Arrowtown, we focused on visits to the different churches that were established during the 1870's as well as a visit to the local cemetery to highlight what living conditions used to be like.

The second day of their visit ended with some gold panning at the Arrow river. One student found four specks of gold so it was a very successful way to end the field trip!

The quality of the research has been really excellent, and I am sure Waimate History students will achieve some fantastic results for their assessments!

Comment below about your visit to Arrowtown and what you found interesting at the Lakes District Museum!

Another busy Friday here at the Lakes District Museum & Gallery! Three arty students from Garston school and five creative students from Alexandra Primary School came together for a camouflage art workshop.

We discussed how animals use camouflage in the wild (to hunt, or to hide). We also thought of how humans use camouflage... we came up with four ideas: for hunting, for the army, for fashion, and for ART!

Our inspiration for artworks came from three VERY different artists:

• Desiree Palmen is a Dutch artist who paints peoples clothes to help them blend into the city, which she then takes photos of.
• Andy Warhol liked the idea of how camouflage hides things, but when he created his camouflage prints he painted them in bright colours so that two opposite ideas of hiding and being easily seen were combined.
• Reuben Paterson is a kiwi artist who likes to incorporate glitter into his artworks of kowhaiwhai patterns.

The techniques we used today included:

• Using different media (paint, crayons, photography, and glitter)
• Mixing and blending colours to create our animal prints and to camouflage our hands
• Practicing our sketching skills by enlarging and copying images of animal prints that on sheets of paper.

The works these students created were AMAZING! I was so impressed by the high quality of the pieces of art - I can't wait to run another workshop!
What did you enjoy about the Art workshop?

What was something new you learned at the workshop?

How are you going to display your pieces of art at home??

Answer my questions and comment about your visit below!

15 year 9 and 10 international students from Thailand visited the Lakes District Museum & Gallery this morning.

During a tour of the Museum, students learned about the gold rush in Arrowtown and the different mining methods the gold miners used which included panning, cradling, sluicing, and using a sluice box. During the tour, students also learned about LONG DROPS, which were a necessary part of life on the goldfields before indoor plumbing became available. At the end of the visit, I creeped students out with a scary ghost story about young Mary Tobin who drowned in the Arrow river. Her portrait hangs in the Museum, and a lot of people believe it is haunted ...

We finished the visit with some gold panning. Students shivered as they dipped their bare feet into the icy cold water of the Arrow River. It was a successful visit as quite a few students found gold! Some students were even lucky enough to find two pieces of gold!

I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay in New Zealand - comment on our blog about your visit to Arrowtown!

Otautau School literally captured the past during a trip to the Lakes District Museum. Students dressed in 1880s costume and planned and posed in a series of photographed shots around historic Arrowtown.

Students first learnt about the history of photography and examined our Box Brownie and Rolleiflex camera's from the early 1900's. Old camera's were passed around the group of students, and everyone felt how heavy and bulky they were! Nothing like the small digital camera's most people use today.

During a historic walk of Arrowtown and a tour of the Chinese settlement, students were introduced to the local stories about this area. The tours also gave the students the opportunity to pose at some historic sites, some of which was over a 100 years old!

We hope you had a good day Otautau and looking forward to seeing some pics and hearing about it on this blog!!

Year 5 students at Queenstown Primary School are learning about the changing roles of families, so a visit to the Lakes District Museum was a great way for the students to discover what families were like over 100 years ago!

A group of students had a tour of the Chinese settlement. This showed the students the lonely lifestyle the Chinese settlers in Arrowtown experienced, as the population in the village was all male! The Chinese settlers traveled to New Zealand and left their families behind, hoping they would return within a few years with money to help their families.

All of the groups had an 1880's school room experience with Miss Gray. This helped students understand the role of children over 100 years ago. Children were expected to wake up a the crack of dawn and complete family chores (like milking the family cow) before going to school. Once at school, learning was very strict and students could be punished by a cane!

All of the year 5 students also received a tour of the Museum focusing on artefacts used by families during the late 1800's. Students learned about clothes wringers, old washing machines, sewing machines that had no electricity to power them, a butter churn, and other old domestic artefacts. As a group we discussed the similarities and differences between family life then and now.

What were some of the chores expected of children during the 1800's?

What chores do you have to do today?

What did families do to have fun during the 1800's?

What does your family do to have fun now?

Answer my questions and comment about your visit below!

Today was super busy at the Lakes District Museum, with three school groups visiting! One of the school groups came all the way from Portobello for their annual camp.

Wendy our Educator worked alongside Portobello School for the whole day! This is what they got up to:

• A museum visit which included handling artefacts and exploring the museum. Students got to handle a Moa bone and they also got to check out our infamous long drop!
• A historic walk of Arrowtown, where students went inside the Old Gaol, the Catholic Church, and Saint Mary MacKillop's cottage.
• A tour of the Chinese settlement, where students explored the inside of Ah Lum's store and learned about the different building materials these huts used.
• Gold Panning at the Arrow river! Wendy taught the students different methods of gold panning, and helped some lucky students even find gold!
• A scary experience with Miss Gray, in an 1800's schoolroom. Dressed up in full costume, and using slate boards, students really learned how difficult school used to be over 100 years ago.

How do we spell "Gaol" today?

What did students used to get the cane for in the 1800's?

What was something new you learned in the Museum?

Do you think learning was harder over 100 years ago? Why?

Did you skip around Mary Cotters tree? Did the good luck help you find gold?

Answer my questions and comment below about your visit to the Lakes District Museum & Gallery!