Eichardt’s Flat

Sitting on Eichardt’s Flat in the hills above Arrowtown. Which got me thinking about the Eichardt name. I enjoyed learning that Albert Eichardt, a Prussian ex-officer, was based in Arrowtown with his brothers in 1863 when he won a gold nugget in a raffle worth £64. Using this, he became the sole proprietor of the Queen’s Arms Hotel on the Queenstown lakefront in 1869, taking over from Mr William Rees. Mr Eichardt married the hotel manager Julia, the hotel was renamed Eichardt’s Hotel and rebuilt in the 1870s - the stone building we see there today. It became (and still is) one of the finest hotels in the province, and a significant local landmark.