New Zealand trip part 2: Oamaru, NZ's only Victorian town (original photos)

Oamaru is New Zealand's only Victorian town. My friend chose it as a stopover on our long drive back to Christchurch from Queenstown. Our hotel had free vouchers for a glass of wine at an Italian restaurant that I had looked up on Trip Advisor, so we were very happy with this nice surprise as it was unexpected. I enjoyed a glass of white wine with my delicious seafood risotto.

(NZ Lamb)

(Cheers!)

(Seafood risotto)

After dinner we went to see the penguins. It was the third time for me to see blue penguins, but the first time to see them for free! There are two sections to see the little ones: if you pay, you'll see the majority of them, but we just waited at the side of the road where they swam ashore to head back to their nests.

(Penguins: sorry for the blur)

There was a 'penguin advocate' who told people not to get too close and he directed traffic too. The penguins were so adorable! I noticed that all of them I observed in the past would come up and just stand there for a long time before they moved again. These penguins behaved in a similar way. We probably saw a dozen of them. On the way back to the car we almost walked by two of them without noticing. They didn’t seem to be scared of us.

The next day was very rainy but we had a good time browsing the shops in the Victorian section of the town. I bought a rare book called Christie's Old Organ for $11 which was a very good deal for a 19th century book. There were several secondhand bookstores there as well as a few steam punk shops. I didn't expect to enjoy the stopover as much as I did!

(Cool Penny farthings)

(Cozy corner of a secondhand bookstore)

(Alice decorations!)

(Agree with this!)

(Love this sign)

All photos taken with my Samsung Galaxy s5.