Blogs from Oamaru, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 5

I've been in the town of the great Penguin (Oamaru) for a month now, my the time has flew past. Living on a farm in the Waitaki valley then moving into Oamaru itself has been an interesting experience. I had been doing some odd jobs around the farm in return for food and board before moving to town and working in Fat Sallys, the hip and happening bar..did I say that? as a waiter and barman. Along the way we managed to write-off our lovely Nissan Bluebird, well to be honest it was me who piled it into a fence post while rallying around the farm under the influence of the red grape, the fierce drifting and reverse donuting for the following 4 hours just about finished it. Like a hardy wee f**ker she was and ... read more

I left Christchurch and headed south and inland to Lake Takepo. It's a bright turquoise colored lake which gets its color from the volcanic particles suspended in water that reflect the sky above (according to the geophysicists at Lonely Planet.) Pretty cool, but not much else going on there, so I only spent the night, went for a run in the morning along the lake, and kept on truckin' to Oamaru. I had four days to zip down the east coast to meet my friend Valerie and her coworker Steve in Queenstown. So on to Oamaru- aka Penguintown! Spent the day just messin' around town, not exciting, but I did go down this one street that still had the old commercial buildings from the 1800's which was like jumping into a time machine. But the main ... read more

I nat kom Anton ned og ville ligge mellem Mona og Thomas, hvilket bare ikke fungerer med en dobbeltdyne. Anton får det altid for varmt og smider dynen i løbet af natten, og så kan vi andre ligge og fryse. Han lå så uroligt, at Thomas kravlede op til Anna i ”kahytten”, som vi kalder ”tagboksen”. Vi skulle køre langt i dag og de første ca. 20 km. vidste vi jo ligesom var en værre gang bjergkørsel. Denne gang havde vi dog inderbanen og vidste, hvad vi gik ind til, så det var ikke så slemt. Resten af turen var ret lige og ret kedeligt. Vi havde dog en del blæst, der fik camperen til at gynge en del. Vi tog afsted fra campingpladsen kl. 8.30 og ankom til den nye i Oamaru kl. 14 efter ... read more

Of all the things in the fridge to steal, why the cucumber? It wasn't even a whole cucumber, they put the other half back. Oamaru is very...Victorian. The buildings, the back streets, everything in the center is Victorian-esk. Obviously the further out you go the more normal it is. The day we arrived our hostel was holding a 'pot luck' night. Basically anyone who wants to join in brings some food, and everyone shares. So if everyone brings desserts, thats what you have. That didn't happen. Instead, we brought a big tub of spag bol, and the list of other food was... Japanese curry (very, very nice! Not spicy, just aromatic), salad, a pasta broccoli thing, burgers, steak, cookies, apple pies, dips and biscuits and brandy snaps. Its a good idea. It makes everyone meet everyone ... read more

Oamaru November 16, 2008 A day that started out rotten ended up just fine. So here’s what happened. We woke up at beautiful Lake Tekapo to howling winds and gray skies, the sort of day you’d normally stay inside and read a book. But we got up anyway, had our coffee, etc. We were packed up, in our seatbelts, and Joe couldn’t turn the key in the ignition. It wasn’t the engine or the battery, the darn key just doesn’t turn. This had happened a couple of times before, but after a few goes at it, it would turn. In less than 10 minutes we had three guys in the camp tearing into the dashboard trying to take the ignition cylinder out. No luck with that and after an hour of trying to turn the key ... read more