Sunday, January 26, 2014

Oamaru

For us, the chief attraction of Oamaru was its limestone architecture--some interesting neo-classical stuff--but we found much else of interest too. Oamaru is on the east coast of the South Island, about half-way down, an older colonial settlement but with much earlier Maori habitation too. We walked about for an hour or two, then moved on, before I was really ready. The old time and tide thing, and the Moeraki Boulders...
The local limestone--Oamaru stone--lent itself to architects,
builders, sculptors, and others in the latter 19th century
















Library















Interesting inscription















Forests of acanthus leaves...lots of the buildings had
Corinthian columns
















Thus















More ornate limestone















More than a few of the Oamaruvians (!) were of interest
too


















Here we learned much about the advanced state of home-
brewing and -distilling in New Zealand
















Thus















But Steampunk (look it up) was our real
discovery in Oamaru ("that's news to me"
department)





















Thus




















And thus















Very interesting little town...but we didn't want to miss the
boulders at low tide, and had to move on...









2 comments:

Tawana said...

We are enjoying your posts and beautiful photos. Steampunk was new to me...it has its own fashion, a magazine, and even decorates the Arts et Metiers metro station in Paris. Thanks for that bit of trivia information!

Hope you are having a great trip. The photo of the two of you is fabulous.

Carol Galus said...

I am amazed you would go back to a tent--you guys are tough! We are back in the US and making a very slow trek back to Colorado. Tentative arrival back home is March 1st--rounding out about a year on the road. I will enjoy following along with your NZ adventure! Happy travels!