A long day of driving - about 5 1/2 hours!
Oamaru and Steam Punk
The drive from Kaikoura to Oamaru was very soporific... mind you, any car ride with me is not the most talkative experience in the world, as when I get in to the car, I start snoring!
Oamaru is a beautifully preserved Victorian town about an hour and a half from Dunedin. The centre of town has a range of gorgeous victorian architecture, full of character. It is easy to wheel around the town centre, marvelling at the buildings. In the victorian precinct on Harbour and Tyne streets, there are many little arts and craft shops. Mum spent a long time in the Slightly Foxed bookshop and loved the way her book was wrapped up in brown paper. Accessibility was mixed. Some shops I was able to go into but others had the typical victorian stone steps which made things a bit trickier. There is a very good walkway along the harbour - it's flat and well paved and you can enjoy the harbour views and imagine what life might have been like when Oamaru was a thriving, working harbour.
Although we ran out of time to visit, the Botanical Gardens looked beautiful from the outside and contains lovely walking paths throughout the 13 hectares.
Oamaru is billed as the "New Zealand capital of Steam Punk'. I first encountered Steam Punk earlier this year In Cambridge, near my home town of Kirikiriroa/Hamilton when there was a Steam Punk day at the town hall. As far as I understand it, Steam Punk is the Victorians' vision of the future. My dad described it as mad, obsessive inventors beavering away on contraptions in their man cave workshops. I really enjoyed the wacky creations. I initially thought I already knew about steam punk which shows you should never make assumptions. Some of the inventions were crazy! Steam Punk headquarters is set up in an old Wool store next to the Victorian Precinct. Parts of it are accessible, while other parts are very tricky to manoeuvre a wheelchair around. Again, typical of old buildings, there are some steps and narrow passageways to navigate. A powerchair user would find it more difficult.
Accessibility Rating: 5/10
Blue Penguin Colony - Oamaru
On the second day, we went to visit the smallest penguins in the world, the little blue penguins. Located at the end of the Oamaru waterfront, we had a brilliant experience, seeing these penguins waddling out of the water, to find their burrows. A very determined seal who wanted to play with the penguins and kept chasing them into the sea kept us all entertained.
Getting down to the penguin viewing platform was straight forward. While penguin watchers who are able bodied sit on a series of steps, the staff directed me to sit at the fence to watch the penguin parade. Unfortunately, there was a fence at my eye level which means that anyone in a wheelchair or with mobility impairments is not be able too see properly - it means moving away from the fence line to look through the rails which then prevents you being able to clearly see the penguins making their way from the sea up the hill. However a way to remedy this would be to add a glass panel or perspex, or adding a ramp to the concrete viewing stand so that people in wheelchairs and mobility scooters can have a clearer view.
The staff were lovely and provided an in depth commentary to help us understand the life of these little fighters.
Accessibility Rating 7/10
Slightly Foxed bookshop
Harbour Street shops
Incredible. Why have I only just discovered this page!