A Visit to Oamaru 7-10 February 2014

After a final tramp about Mt. Cook, we proceeded down the Waitaki River valley towards Oamaru. The scenery was breathtaking. Once again, I'm going to allow the video to demonstrate for me. The rolling hills and jagged limestone cliffs are quite unlike anything I've seen before. I'm wondering when it's going to get old seeing field after field of sheep.

 

I have to be honest that when we pulled in to the Chillawhile Backpackers in Oamaru I was regreting booking four days there. The backpackers (hostel) is just off the main drag on the outskirts of town. The area feels really quite like home, and not in a good way! If you know Oshawa, you know what I'm saying ;-). We signed in to Chillawhile and received a warm greeting and a tour around the big, old Victorian home. The place is really cool. We were encouraged to try our hand at painting -- supplies are included -- and Brody and I soon set up to create some masterpieces of our own. The walls are adorned with beautiful artwork created by past guests, some really quite stunning. There are African drums, guitars, and a piano for guests to further explore their creative side. Four days there didn't seem such a bad idea afterall.

Our first day we ventured a little further down the road and soon discovered what Oamaru is all about. It is a beautiful Victorian town adorned with impressive locally-sourced limestone buildings. There are people walking about in Victorian-era costumes and several streets downtown are dedicated to preserving this historic charm. I've begun reading Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries (GG winner!) set in Victorian-era NZ and I feel like Oamaru captures the setting perfectly. (Okay, okay, it's the wrong coast, but we haven't seen Hokitika yet!)

Oamaru is also the Steampunk capital of NZ. You'll see some examples of sculptures found around the HQ building in my video. The kids' favourite part of the town was most definitely the park. We had a great time there! And there was free wifi available too! Canada could learn a thing or two about how to make parks truly fun for all ages.

We made a trip south of the town to see the Moeraki boulders. These large boulders are scattered like marbles along a stretch of beach. The literature tells us they are formed like pearls and then escape from the cliffs and tumble onto the beach. This all takes thousands of years of course! A few of the boulders have cracked open, and they look like segments of an orange inside. Pretty cool.

We spent one night freezing our butts off waiting for three hours for penguins to arrive -- to no avail. It seems we were in the wrong place. Armed with better directions to a guaranteed sighting, we are going to give it another go tonight. To prepare, we went to the Salvation Army shop and bought a bunch of Merino wool sweaters from the $0.50 rack. The nice woman there was so embarrassed by the state of some of the stuff we purchased she gave it to us for free (along with directions for darning -- LOL!). The one $10 sweater (for Bill) she sold to us for half price. I really don't care how we look as along as we're warm!!

Moeraki boulders

Speaking of warm, I went to a beautiful wool shop today and bought some lovely NZ alpaca/merino blend (so soft) to make myself a hat. Only knitters will appreciate the compulsion to buy beautiful yarn when the opportunity arises. I bought a $0.25 circular needle at the Sally Ann on which to make my hat. I will post photos when I'm done!

Today we ventured to the Elephant Rocks. They are in the midst of a sheep pasture, and are natural rock formations. Very freaky looking. I've included some pictures because they were post video production!

In the morning we're off to Dunedin...

P.S. As I sign off, there's a guy here at the Chillawhile playing the didgeridoo. There's something you can't say everyday!