Oamaru – Old buildings and penguins

 After packing up the car we indulged in our coffee addiction before heading off to Oamaru. We detoured briefly to Lake Hayes as it was still and the possiblity of a nice photo or two  presented itself.

 

Lake Hayes

Our first stop was in Alexandra where I got petrol that was about 10% cheaper than Queenstown. Next we went to the Courthouse Café for lunch where the food has always been good when visiting previously. It did not disappoint.  In addition, it was nice to be warm enough for us to happily sit in the sun. 

Best café in Alexandra

 

The drive to Oamaru took us through Ranfurly then on to Palmerston.  A few kilometres past Ranfurly we were detoured towards Middlemarch turning off on to a road that would take us through Macraes Flat.  I have never driven that way before, so it was interesting to see the stony and hilly environment where animals were few and far between and humans almost non-existent.  Macraes Flat is a small settlement that seems to have hardly changed since the 19^th century.  Soon after the road widened, and we could see a mining area that has dug up huge amounts of rock to extract gold.  The extent of it was quite surprising and I read that it was New Zealand’s largest gold mine.  I think it may have now been mined out and I assume the work being done there is to mitigate the environmental damage that has been done over the past thirty years.

 

The GPS then took us for quite a journey through a part of eastern Otago that I have not been to before and finally we emerged just before Moeraki. 

 

We stayed in a very quirky hotel called Poshtel that Bev had found.  The room was quite small but it had a very high ceiling and was housed in an old bank I think.  It was a good thing the ice-axes in our room were securely attached to the wall!

Oamaru is known for old Victorian buildings and the little blue penguin colony.  We thought it might be nice to see some and so walked from the hotel, around the harbour to the place where the tours are run from.  On the way we came across  a colony of two species of shags on an old wharf that had been constructed in the 1880s but was now shut off from the public.  Apparently there are thousands of the birds breeding there.

A sample of the shags on the wharf

 

Oamaru Harbour

We had assumed that the penguins could be viewed at any time but when we arrived we found out that they did not appear until dusk as they were out feeding.  The set-up was impressive but we realised that we might have to wait too long and miss our already booked dinner. 

 

On the way back we stopped in at a brew pub where I had an interesting Belgian style beer and Bev enjoyed a glass of wine. 

 

We went to a restaurant called Star and Garter so named because it used to be a wedding reception venue.   There were photos on the wall of happy couples and their bridal parties dating back as far the 1920s.The food was simple but very tasty.  Bev had some wonderful and perfectly pan fried blue cod while I had an old favourite of lambs fry and bacon followed by a shared apricot crumble.  It was value for money meal in a rather nice old building. 

Another view of Lake Hayes