Quirky Oamaru and the Moeraki Stones
Trip Start
Jan 24, 2011
1
27
29
Trip End
Feb 23, 2011
Oamaru, South Island, New Zealand
Sunday, February 20, 2011
We left Dunedin early afternoon with the sound of bagpipes ringing in our ears and headed to our next stop, Oamaru, about two hours drive away.
On the way we stopped to look at the Moeraki Stones which due to their composition and wave action are circular – or at least spherical!
The campsite was full and we then spent a few worried minutes looking for somewhere to stay for the night. With our luck holding, we totally by chance landed in a new motel, we think owned by Chinese people (the staff were all from China), which was based in part of the old, now disused, Oamaru Hospital.
The Eden Gardens Motel proved to be outstanding with a big room, super view from the window and spotless linen and towels etc.
In the evening we dropped down into Oamaru to eat which proved quite a challenge. However after walking in and straight out of a Chinese Restaurant, we eventually wandered into The Last Post pub and restaurant, which was against all the odds, very good. The pub had quite a history also, as in the boom years in the mid/late 1800's, it had been the town Post Office (or Postie as they call them here).
Quirky as Oamaru is, it does have one major and totally redeeming feature in that it has a colony of very rare Blue Penguins, who are nocturnally active, at the end of the breakwater. The penguins are all tagged, tracked and provided with 'homes’ (or is it nest?) just behind the beach and from 8.30pm the public – for a small charge – are allowed to sit on a purpose-built grandstand (no photography or noise) and a young lady gives everyone a running commentary on the returning penguins as they come home to ‘roost’. Thousand of Cormorants also leave their spot on one of the old harbour jetties and fly down the coast somewhere to sleep. The numbers that return each night vary but on this evening 105 returned over the space of one hour.
This is a totally enthralling sight and we sat spellbound until 10pm. Again, an unforgettable experience, totally unplanned and perhaps all the better for that!
In the morning we are heading for our last stop – yes our last stop – Christchurch!
