Arrowtown

On Thursday morning we hopped on a flight to Queenstown. It's only two hours away, but it's a completely different world. Every time I come to this part of the country the scenery never ceases to knock my socks off; there are jaw droppingly beautiful views in every direction.

This time we weren't staying in Queenstown though, and so drove through Arthur's Point to Arrowtown, checking out the wacky letterboxes on our way.

About 15 minutes later we arrived in Arrowtown; a quaint and picturesque former gold mining town that we were going to call home for the next few days

First stop was The Remarkable Sweet Shop- a famous shop selling all the best retro and international lollies, along with their amazing homemade fudge. The place was packed but we managed to squeeze in and try almost every fudge on offer.

My favourite was the salted caramel (of course) but I couldn't muster up the courage to try the 'marmite sandwich', I think I'll have to do it before I leave though.

After a mosey through all the shops, it was about drink o'clock (well, almost) so we settled down at the local pub and basked in the afternoon sun drinking local beers and mulled wine.

Suzie, a seasoned drinker of mulled wine, decided it would only be right to do a mulled wine tour of the area, but more on that later.

As the sun set the temperature plummeted so we nipped back to the house for some more layers. The boys started heating up the wood burning hot-tub, so it would be toasty warm for our return, and the girls sat there criticising their fire building techniques (we could do it way better, I'm sure).

We walked back into Arrowtown, and down a small lane, hidden behind an inconspicuous blue door is the appropriately named bar; The Blue Door. There are no signs, no hint that it is there, you don't know it unless you know it kind of place.

We spent the next few hours drinking cocktails and making friends with people from all over the world who were visiting Arrowtown. The Blue Door is definitely the place to visit down here, even if you just have a sneaky peek in.

After a while we heard the hot-tub calling our names, and said goodbye to our new friends and hurried back home. A perfect first day in Arrowtown.