Oamaru- A fascinating town!

11^th March 2015

 The road northwards took us past the unusual Moeraki Boulders, lying scattered along the beach, like giant marbles!

When one arrives in Oamaru, one is immediately aware that this is a town that was created out of wealth and affluence, in days gone by.

Oamaru’s wealth was generated by their pioneering the export of refrigerated meats. The Victorian buildings, botanical gardens, steam train and port, are all byproducts of this period.

A bookshop specializing in out of print adventure and exploration publications. This is the replica of Shackleton's "James Caird" used in the movie. There must be at least 200 books on Shackleton and, of course, as many about Sir Edmund Hiliary

In the 1880’s, Oamaru rivaled Los Angeles in size, and population.

Today, so much of that old Victorian splendor and architecture, and charm, is being preserved and restored. The town gives off an ambience of pride in its heritage, combined with a modern day quirky, arty- crafty fusion, a pavement café society, its own malt whisky company,  plus the Whitestone cheese factory. It all combines to make it a pretty interesting town!

Steampunk HQ.......Jules Verne gone mad

Along with all this, there is a big Blue Penguin Colony centre, where one can watch the nightly arrival of the world’s smallest penguins after their 40-50km fishing trips.  

The viewing stands at the Blue Penguin colony and the rocky beach they land on

No camera’s or photography is allowed at the centre, so we are not able to show you any of the 78  tired little fellows we watched arriving back at the colony.

 Then there is the Yellow Eyed Penguin colony at Bushy Beach, where one can look out for their return as well. These guys come back at about 6.30 -7.00pm, so we were able to see 1 or 2 of them coming ashore, before going to watch the Blue Penguins at their colony, who only come back after 8.15pm 

Shags took over this abandoned jetty as their colony