Arrowtown

Denise drove us from Queenstown to the nearby Arrowtown and to the home of Colin and Mary Bellet. Mary has known Denise all her life since when their respective parents were friends in Winton. She married Colin when she was only 20 and they went off to Papua New Guinea as missionaries when their first child was only 18 months old. There they had two more of their 5 children before returning to New Zealand. Colin then engaged in various activities and obviously showed great entrepreneurship, as he prospered sufficiently to buy 10 acres of land on which he literally himself built the most beautiful spacious home with beautiful views over Lake Hayes.

The sitting room with its superb views. The whole property and Colin's development of it would have made an excellent 'Grand Designs' programme.

 

Mary provided an excellent supper, after which we were shown to our bedroom and bathroom for which there was no need to draw the curtains as one could only see mountains in the distance.

I was up early in the morning, as was Colin, and I much enjoyed chatting to him about his remarkable life. We went for a walk and then all joined them for the service at their local church, in which both Colin and Mary are much involved.

 

We walked around Arrowtown, which is an old gold rush town and has retained much of its frontier town appearance. We lunched their together and then made our way to Te Anau reflecting on what incredible lives Colin and Mary have lived.

 

Robert Cole