Unfortunately we had to leave Dunedin – according to our plan today we’ll see highest New Zealand mountain! But before we visited Moeraki boulders – as I understood, whole beach is full of these big stones but you can see only few which located near shoreline.
Despite 9AM there were lots of people on beach. So my advice is try to get there earlier as possible, for example, around 5AM during low tide to catch sunrise a make cool images using long exposure.
Then we drove to blue penguings beach and watched sea lions swimming among seaweed and came to Oamaru.
Oamaru has few very old streets with vintage atmosphere
Shops and different stores,
with goods without prices so you can’t understand is it museum or warehouse or something else,
and of course, Whiskey plant!
It is a pity but the plant was closed in 70s, and shop nearby is just selling remaining whiskey from barrells. They say it will last no more than 3 years. There is no whiskey plants in New Zealand. 😐
What else, there is steam pank headquarter in Oamaru and also there is a park near beach where everyone can observe quite an interesting showpiece,
Steam pank museum located near town center. We didn’t go there but our friends told us inner content has its value for $10 ticket. This particular showpiece is exoskeleton with a seat, dashboard and controls:
There is old steam train running in Oamaru
We walked in town center a bit. Apart from strong and cold wind from the ocean, we liked Oamaru very much. House prices are 200-300K.
Meanwhile there is +29c at Canterbury region! Much way warmer comparing to Auckland 🙂
We saw typical Mountain Altay landscapes on the way. Now I know how much you would pay for 100 or even 300 acres of land.
We stopped at hydro power plant Waitaki, with a dam across river with artificial lake. Then we saw another three dam on the way. People do like to spend vacations on these artificial lakes – there were lots of people on SUVs with boats, and water scooters. And again you can go for salmon fishing or buy some fish on a farm.
You can drive on a top of some of this dam and watch water reserve from another side
After Twiezel, the last town with shops where we bought food for two days in advance, I decided to try what is to be a passenger in Forester – I would say it is pretty comfortable. And yes, Max has learning driver license so we have L sign on both windshield and back window 🙂
Mountain Cook, or Aoraki and Lake Pukaki from Peters lookout.
And another one from the valley. Its height is ~3500 метров.
Very beautiful!
Stay tuned!
Ivan Grigoryev's Blog
Living in New Zealand. Blogging about the country, beautiful places, everyday life.
Do a skydive - halfway completed; get 1400 - still working on; reach 300kph - completed by 96.6%