Oamaru is probably one of the few places that can thank debt and depression for what it has now become- a true relic to it’s heritage and history. A town that is masked with an eccentric vibe, from the old Victorian dress you see people wearing to the horse and carts dotted around the historic part of town- even down to the main active railway line which cuts right through the centre of town and the odd penguin crossing street signs.
Oddly enough and the significance of this is for my family, it’s twinned with the UK city of Devizes.
Having arrived reasonably early we had the chance to check out the Blue Penguin colony on our first night, the main attraction of Oamaru. The penguins stand at a mere 16 inches tall and only weight in at 1kg, so very small. You pay about $20 (£9) which goes back into the blue penguin charity, the whole event is very peculiar- to sum up the evening you sit in a stand with many other tourists watching a cliff, some sea and a garden with lots of little huts inside it…Confused? We were! Anyway a couple of little penguins start heading out of the sea and very tentatively begin to head up the cliff onto land, as time goes by more and more (112 in total) of the little penguins come out of the sea. I found the whole experience to be very odd, though admittedly the little guys were very cute and wow can they make a noise and we were pumping money back into a conservation programme which I have no issue with at all.
Anyway after the late finish we headed back, walking past a few penguins waddling down the street- a strange experience. Unlike many of the other tourists we heeded the DOC (department of conservation) warning that taking photographs of the penguins can damage their eye sight and frighten them, clearly many people don’t understand simple rules.
Our second full day in Oamaru was planned around visiting the yellow penguin colony, a smaller and much rarer colony than that of the blues. However we started our morning with a trek around the Cape Wanbrow Reserve and a walk up to the lookout point, which looks onto the township of Oamaru and the south Pacific sea.
After a brief amount of time taking in the views, we began our walk to the yellow penguin colony. We decided against the boring walk along the road and on the tramp over the beach and through the scenic reserve, which in all fairness is definitely the more picturesque;
Unfortunately for us and not so unfortunate in other ways, a large group of seals blocked our path and to be honest I didn’t really feel like pushing them out of the way, though we did stop to get some photographs- without getting too close of course.
After turning back we took the not so scenic but still interesting walk along the road to the yellow penguin colony, once there we only stayed for 30 - 40 minutes and unfortunately didn’t get a glimpse of any, though we did catch one of a very lazy fur seal. We would have stayed around longer but the weather got very cold very quick and we were very under prepared.
Our last day before heading to Christchurch started out with ourselves being lost for what to actually do, being in very indecisive moods. Our natural flow took us for a stroll around the Oamaru botanical gardens- complete with an aviary, Chinese gardens and many other intricate little features- if you have a short while to spare I think we’d both recommend doing it.
Before we shot off we really thought we better check out the Whitestone cheese factory- considering Oamaru is quite famous for it’s regional cheese. We didn’t actually do the factory itself so can’t comment on that instead we decided upon a short visit to the café for a cheese platter between the two of us- definitely worth it.
No comments:
Post a Comment