Arrowtown's autumn festival too good to keep secret

The old-timers want to keep it hush-hush but MONIQUE DEVEREUX discovers the colourful secret of Arrowtown's attraction

Locations and events that bill themselves as New Zealand's best-kept secret rarely are.

So when you stumble on a beautiful, off-the-beaten-track town with an annual event that has been running successfully for 20 years without a line of publicity, you know you have found something that really is worth shutting up about.

Which means I should stop writing now.

But I've never been one to keep secrets, so I'm happy to reveal all about Arrowtown, a place of extremes, with its sweltering summer heat and freezing winter chill factor.

The advantages of the summer and winter seasons are obvious; holiday town with a crystal, cold, safe swimming river in summer and a good base for nearby skifields in winter.

But it is in autumn that this Southern Lakes District village is best visited.

This is when thousands of trees around the township explode in a range of colour so breathtakingly vibrant it almost compels the visitor to write poetry, or at least roll around in the fallen leaves like a hyperactive 4-year-old.

Arrowtown, 15 minutes drive from Queenstown's airport, has held its Autumn Festival for 20 years as of this week, but this year is the first it has been advertised.

That is not to say it has not been successful - it is the most popular event on the local social calendar - but this year, after a ferocious battle, it was decided to use the neighbouring marketing machine of Destination Queenstown to promote the event further afield.

The "older" locals were happy to keep this annual 10-day event pretty hush-hush, and just for themselves to enjoy. But the "newbies" - people who have lived in the town less than 20 years - won out and the festival will no longer be advertised by just word of mouth.

Before now visitors to the township have merely stumbled across the festivities. This year a website and widely distributed brochures have opened the invitation list somewhat.

But those not in the know early will still have missed out on the big events - the May 1 Harvest Golf Tournament and the Autumn Ball - as entry to both were sold out before tickets officially went on sale. Which means out-of-towners should be on notice as of now, a year out, to enjoy next year's festival.

Arrowtown is probably best known for its gold-panning in a region steeped in colourful history.

Legend has it that a miner who lived up the river 100 years ago kept his wife tied to a stake all day. But the women of the town decided life was hard enough here for anyone without being tied up all day, so they found a few stakes of their own and paid the miner a visit, beating him to within an inch of his life.

This story and others will be re-enacted during the Arrow History Day of the Autumn Festival.

But mining and gold - or lack thereof these days - are not Arrowtown's only attraction.

It is relatively remote, everyone knows everyone, kids roam the quiet streets freely on their 10-speeds and milk is delivered in bottles to the gate.

Yet it is a mere 15 minutes' drive from an international airport, and the Australian artists, chefs and other business owners in town commute home to Sydney for the weekend. The local dairy even sells the New Zealand Herald, albeit after midday.

So popular and rapidly growing is the lifestyle that this year zoning has been introduced for the sole primary school. Live out of the tight zone and your children must make the 25-minute journey to Queenstown to school.

Apparently a lot of international celebrities have homes around town but, like many attractions around here, their identities are not readily revealed. It's well known that Sam Neill lives down the road, but there are others, bigger and more famous, or so the locals say.

The town's hot spots are also a closely guarded secret.

The best attraction only gets a passing mention on the tourist paraphernalia. It takes almost an hour, but the walk up Tobins Track is worth every steep step.

From the top, beside seats erected in memory of now-deceased Arrowtown icons Noel and Jack, the vista is exquisite, taking in Arrowtown and Queenstown airport.

It's somewhat eerie to sit alone on a hilltop while watching a huge Qantas jet circle the Wakatipu basin - at an altitude lower than your viewing point - as it negotiates the scary mountain-lined flight path into Queenstown.

Arrowtown's best bar, which is very funky and semi-underground, is also secret and not advertised. Tucked away in an alley, it has a signage-free blue door which looks rundown and almost abandoned by day.

On a quiet autumn Friday night just one international rock star was drinking cranberry juice at the bar and no one took any notice of him.

It only takes a few drinks before you get into the swing of things, so I can't say who he was because I might want to come back.

* Contact: Arrowtown Promotion Association, phone (03) 442 0132, (03) 442 1244