South Island Trip – Day 1 - Oamaru and Moeraki Boulders

Finally we got a couple of days off from work at the same time. We decided to fly to Christchurch and have a look at the South Island. The next few posts will be introducing our little trip day by day, so find a comfortable chair, grab a cup of coffee, and let me share some of my memories with you! ;)

As Marek loves animals, every successful trip of ours must include some of them. Oamaru was the town on the way to Moeraki Boulders (which was my dreamplace since I saw the picture of it as a background on Bing :D), and it is famous for its penguin colonies, so we decided to stop there as well.

My personal driver. And boyfriend as well.

After driving there from Christchurch for about three hours, we visited the historical precinct of Oamaru. No one around and a couple of shops with a lot of stuff. If you are into English antiques, I bet you would feel here like in heaven. But to me it is still a mystery, how they can survive with this kind of business.

An oldschool cash register.

During a surprise hailing, we found a shelter in the Steampunk Museum. Being marked by Tripadvisor as a number one attraction in Oamaru, I expected something really good. Maybe it was my lack of interest in steampunk, maybe something else, but the museum seemed to me really boring. Two dark and damp rooms filled with some weird creepy stuff made out of steel (or whatever that was) made us leave after 10 minutes of walking around.

So this is it... Steampunk Lady.

Inside the Infinity Portal. The best part of the Steampunk Museum.

Mr. Pig or... I don't know.

In front of the Steampunk Museum.

On the other hand, our next stop at Moeraki Boulders was amazing. I could spend three days here, just taking pictures of these stones on the beach from every possible angle. Hugging warm stones nearby the ocean, jumping from one to another, that is my kind of thing! Definitely one of the nicest places we visited on the South Island.

Me.

Marek.

Marek again.

"Rock climbing."

The evening is supposed to be the best time of the day to watch the yellow-eyed penguins on the shore, as they spend their day hunting in the sea. As soon as the sun started to set, we left Moeraki Boulders and went to the Bushy Beach.

At first I thought we were in the wrong place or every penguin is already asleep. But after we decided to find another spot about a kilometer further, we were lucky to see them. They were casually walking on the hills, as close as two meters away from you.

A lighthouse in the distance.

Hello there!

Penguin footprints.

A seal and my shadow.

We saw a lot of seals as well. They were scary and though I wanted the best pictures, I decided to follow the signs and don’t go too close. We planned to go to another nice spot for watching penguins, but it was getting late and we were too tired, so we went to the motel instead as we needed to be fresh for our next day adventure… driving all the way to Queenstown.