Fly to the South Island, and another Penguin Parade

Monday, April 8, 2019   Rotorua, Christchurch, drive to Oamaru

The South Island has HUGE flies! This was at a weird place called Steampunk HQ, in Oamaru.

We had to awaken really early, because our flight departed at 7:15, from nearby Rotorua Airport. We flew to Christchurch, and out the right side of the plane, we could see Mt. Ruapehu erupting -- again (although it was steam, no ash or lava).

At the airport, we immediately got onto our bus, and headed out of town to the south. I thought I recognized our driver, and after a while it hit me; he was our driver during our cruise excursion out of Akaroa. Peter Spiller. He was the one who told the Māori jokes, whom we liked so much to and from the sheep farm that day. As it turned out, Peter was far more than a bus driver for us; he was equally our tour guide and narrated as much or more than Greg did. They made a good team.

Here's a map to provide a general guide where our tour took us. Christchurch south to Oamaru. Then east to Cromwell, Queenstown, and Milford Sound. Then up to Wanaka and NE to Lake Tekapo, with a day trip to Mount Cook. And finally back to Christchurch. Just above Mount Cook you can see Franz Josef, which is where we originally were going to go instead of Lake Tekapo and Mt. Cook. This map shows a green route both for where we went, and where Rick, Beth, and Cheryl went.

Our drive down Hwy 1 to Oamaru was 155 miles, and took about 3.5 hours with one stop along the way (where I reminded Peter that he had been our tour guide a few weeks earlier. He was as startled as Janet and I were.) We knew that we would get to see Christchurch at the end of our trip.

Along the way, we crossed New Zealand's longest bridge over the Rakaia River, one of Canterbury's large braided rivers. It's over a mile long, and opened in 1939.

 In Oamaru, which is on the Pacific Coast about 2/3 of the distance from Christchurch to Dunedin, we stayed in this classic old hotel, the Brydone, from 1881.

We quickly headed out for an excursion, by foot.

There's part of our group walking in front, and across the way is the St. Luke's Anglican Church.

And then we reached Steampunk HQ, a museum to this odd following. None of us had heard of it, so we had to Google it: "Steampunk is a quirky and fun genre of science fiction that features steam-powered technology. It is often set in an alternate, futuristic version of 19th century Victorian England with steam powered devices – the ‘world gone mad’ as Victorian people may have imagined it. Examples are machines like those in the writing of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, and in television shows such as Dr. Who."

 In addition to the large bugs on the wall in the top photo, here was a fisherman with a tiny hook! It was a strange place, and I'm pretty sure none of us paid to visit the inside.

We walked a bit farther to Harbour St, in Oamaru's Victorian Precinct. The original buildings, made from locally quarried limestone, are a testament to the town's boom era, when it was an important port town, sending the first frozen meat exports around the world. Today, the buildings are filled with galleries, shops, artisans, and cafes.

 Even though it's green, I see that it's name is Miss Purple. ?? Cool old truck and "camper", though.

Of all the shops on Harbour St, though, I enjoyed this bicycle "museum" the most.

 So many penny farthings, as well as numerous other old bicycles, including a wooden one. The old advertisements and photos were cool too.

I took this picture because of the sign: Oamaru Cycle Works, 1882. Yes, back then, before automobiles, bicycles were the rage. I knew this about the U.S. and Britain for sure, but hadn't ever heard of it in other countries as well. Very Victorian!

On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped in briefly at a couple antique stores, and I HAD to take this picture.

We toured inside this old opera house, opened in 1907. It was beautiful inside! We also went into a little museum and I recall Māori artifacts they found where the nearby Waitaki River empties into the Pacific Ocean.

Our dinner was all together in the hotel, and then we went to the Penguin Parade. They were the same Little Blue Penguins, so it was fairly similar to the parade at Phillip Island in Australia, but we could not see them emerge from the water. From our seats in the stands, we could see them only after they had waddled across some rocks and onto the flat sand and grass in front of us. They waddled through openings in a fence, and then off to their nests.

One special difference was that there were two large sea lions lying in the penguins' path. It was funny to see how the various penguins would react to have to walk past the huge beasts. Some would hesitate, and a woman in our group sitting behind us would cheer them on, as if they could hear her. "You can do it, keep going, no no, not that way, go go go, he won't hurt you, go!" Hahahaha