Oamaru – One of New Zealand’s Greatest Treasures and Hidden Secrets

This precinct is New Zealand’s most intact Victorian streetscape. The old precinct area is coming alive again, though nothing has changed on the outside. I look up at the 133 year old Oamaru Mail building. I can sense the printer’s ink and the whir of the press churning out the first edition among the hive of newspaper activity.

Across the road is the Penguin Club where some of the best bands and top singers perform. Top Sydney-based Kiwi, Jackie Bristowe is playing there this month – sadly I just miss her. Down the end on the left is the massive old Loan and Merc building, which is currently home to the Grain Store Art Gallery on the second floor. The stairs to the second floor are worn down in the passage of time by the clod-nail boots of messenger boys, grain merchants and millers. The gallery is one of New Zealand’s biggest and most impressive community galleries featuring artists like Donna Demente and Chris Wilkie.

All the Harbour St buildings are made of Oamaru stone which has weathered well and has a sense of belonging and a future despite being ignored for much of last century. Harbour St was a place not to go at night in the early part of the 20th century. They called it bad-egg street for the down and out types who could be found lurking there. These days it must be regarded as New Zealand’s finest historic commercial streets – bar none.

Around the corner I trawl an older second hand book shop which feels centuries old. Next door I pop in and have a yarn to Oamaru’s most colourful bearded character, book-binder Michael O’Brien. He’s into organics and everything else that is in vogue. He’s a genial, good bugger. A few more steps along the road, and I am outside the Criterion pub, 133 years old, revived and popular once more. It’s hard to believe it was once a temperance hotel but then up to the 1960s, Oamaru was a ‘dry’ area and you had to drive north over the Waitaki River to get a flagon of beer from the Glenavy pub.

The sun is setting and I drive up the hill to be the best Victorian style lodge in New Zealand – Pen-y-bryn Lodge. As with the rest of the town of 12,000, there is a real sense of history here. The lodge is a magnificent building; a former estate home. My room featured a grand old Victorian claw foot bath-tub with its original brass fittings and the billiard table is the envy of any man who loves the game. The table was one of three commissioned by the government for Parliament but was auctioned off when the government found that they could only accommodate two of them; it's been at the lodge since the 1920s.I sip buttery Spy Valley chardonnay wine and gaze out to quiet, sleepy Oamaru, wondering if time has stood still for so long. The 926sq m house lodge is rich with antiques and original furnishings throughout. The rooms feature amazing oak wood panelling and other original features. When built in 1889, it was the largest private house in South Island in 1889. It is the only place to enjoy in luxury in the area and is an ideal staging post between Christchurch and Dunedin.

Oamaru is blessed with other magnificent buildings – the two old post offices – including the ‘new’ second Oamaru Post Office, built in 1884, now sadly used as offices for the Waitaki District Council. There’s the Forrester Gallery and the National Bank buildings with their columns and stunning Oamaru limestone carvings. For more living history there is also the Empire Hotel Backpackers (1867), or Brydone Hotel (1881) – once a pub with no beer (prohibition until the 1960s), the churches, the Opera House and so it goes on.

I confess to being bewildered by the lack of lure by local authorities to draw people off state highway one and down to the architectural heaven near the beginning of Thames St. Tourists reach the Thames Highway-Severn St intersection and head north or south – missing all the best of Oamaru. It’s crazy. The lack of bold signage to the grand old part of town is a mystery. Come on – tell the world Oamaru. Do more to lure tourists.

But there is more to Oamaru than just old buildings. This was the home of one of New Zealand’s greatest ever authors, Janet Frame, who died six years ago. Her home is now a tourist attraction. Oamaru is also famous for its strutting penguins that put on a show every night as they climb out of the sea and waddle into their nests past a seated grandstand for tourists.

Comments / Reviews of Oamaru – One of New Zealand’s Greatest Treasures and Hidden Secrets

Your Name:	We require a name and valid email address for all comments by non-members.
Your Email:	KiwiWise takes privacy seriously so will never publish or share your email address.
Math Question:	2 plus 9 = This question helps us to prevent spam
Your Rating:	Please choose a rating 10 - Perfection! 9 - Amazing! 8 - Great! 7 - Really Good 6 - Good 5 - OK 4 - Not so good 3 - Pretty Bad 2 - Terrible 1 - Absolute Rubbish!
Comment/Review:

Not sure what to say? Here's some ideas to get you started... inspiring, shocking, eduational, funny
well written, too short, similar to your experience

• posted on 1294175613 0
  Overall Rating: 10.0 / 10

  love it there lots of art and craft stuff checkout "slightlyfoxed" inthe out part of town and start from there