Chilling a while at Oamaru

The small Victorian town of Oamaru lies north of Dunedin, on the eastern coast of New Zealand's South Island. Despite its small size it is a relatively busy tourist destination, being one of the best and most easily accessible places in all of New Zealand to witness the landing of the penguin populations. Oamaru's centre has a small historic precinct with beutiful architechture which also rightfully promotes the town's popularity among travellers.

I spent my Oamaru time in a hostel called Chillawhile, near the northern edge of town. The hostel had a really unique creative arts vibe with art on every single piece of available wall and musical instruments dotting the grand living room. I happened to fall ill with a sinus infection as soon as I arrived in the town so I had to spend a couple of days in bed recovering before I could start working to cover for my accommodation, just as I had done in Invercargill.

The weather in the middle of winter on the South Island can be highly unpredictable, a testament to which during the first couple of days snow kept on falling from a wholly black sky. The locals told me that it was the first time it had snowed in 32 years. During the following couple of days the weather luckily brightened up though and reached highs of 15-16°C at noon.

Within a walking distance from centre of town exist two penguin colonies, one for the blue ”fairy” penguins and another for the more rare yellow-eyed penguin species. For $20 tourists can enter the blue penguin colony around sunset (in late August around 6PM) to watch the penguins make their way back to the colony after a couple of weeks of fishing out at sea. The yellow-eyed penguin colony farther from town center is free of charge.

I had too many good photos in Oamaru but here's a selection of the best ones:

Apparently they don't look left and right!

The town movie theatre.

Bird life is really abundant near the harbour.

This guy kept muttering something about buckets...

A view of the pier.

Whatever you do, don't use a flash if you see a penguin!