South to Oamaru and Shag Point

We must begin this blog with a big thank you to Mike, an incredibly helpful and friendly American we met when Brett was visiting. He generously passed along a wealth of information regarding free and low cost camping all around the country, in addition to recommendations for good spots to see penguins and seals, where to buy the best cheese and honey, and how to generally travel cheaply and in style in New Zealand. All of his recommendations have been spot on so far. Thank you!

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Once introduced to the wide world of freedom camping, we spent a night on the beach south of Oamaru. Just a short walk beyond our site the road was barricaded, for repairs we assumed. A little exploration revealed that Beach Road had recently made a major shift to literally becoming the beach. Check it out:

We took a long walk down the beach and found some great rocks and cool geology to admire.

An assortment of our favorites


This is a close up of a bigger rock that was composed of an amazing amalgam of shells and rocks

Our beach camping was very basic, but we still managed to make a wonderful pasta dinner with lots of fresh veggies in the sauce.

Dinner, on a rainy night

From the beach, we headed to Oamaru and found an awesome, totally unmentioned town in the tourist circuit. The downtown was largely built in the 1870s during the town's boom period. And, as there were no trees in the area, all the buildings were constructed of beautiful limestone. The result is a huge section of downtown made up of preserved, 3-4 story, greco-style, Victorian buildings. It was like a proper old time European city.

A street view downtown Oamaru (the building with the wreath is the Criterion Hotel)

It would all be just a pretty facade if most of the buildings weren't full of quirky and amazing stores; traditional soap maker, opera costume shops, old-time toy stores, secondhand books, bakeries, galleries and even a book binding shop.

One of the streets adorned with shop signs

The book binders was perhaps the most interesting shop as the man who owns it makes books using 17th century methods! The books on the shelves look like they walked right out of an Elizabethan library and into his store, except they're brand new! He makes his own marble paper, restores old volumes and does his own leather work. Inspiring given our own attempts to make books early this year with Wolfgang.

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After a few days in the town we headed south to the Moeraki Boulders, an unexpected sight on a stretch of otherwise flat beach. They say these rocks are 80 million year old sediment formed around limestone cores. Hmmm, we suspect giants or outer-space...

The Boulders

Lou with an especially smooth, large bouder

After the boulders we went in search of the yellow-eyed penguins whose colonies dot the shores of the southeast coast of the South Island. Following Mike's advice, we headed to Shag Point, where we spent the day waiting for the penguins to come ashore before dusk. After all day, we spent an hour watching a lone penguin come ashore at about 8:00pm (it gets dark now at 10:00pm).

The elusive penguin

As this penguin is endemic to New Zealand and is thought to number in the hundreds, we felt very fortunate to witness this from a lookout away from the beach. The distance is necessarily as to not to dissuade him from coming ashore.

A seal resting in one of the many caves

Shag Point was also home to fur seals, shags, and other sea birds as well as incredible kelp forests in the sea near the shoreline.

This just about encapsulates Shag Point!

Next Time: Duniden and (hopefully) a Christmas Parade!