MY SENSE OF DIRECTION IS SO SKEWED -
Following his guidance, I had soon gone way, WAY, WAYYYY too far, not knowing where I should turn off. It was maddening that I had to relent and ask several people where to go from there as my phone wifi was failing me also. An hour or so longer than it ought to have taken me, I was delighted to arrive at Riccarton Bush, 'Christchurch's oldest treasure' - a native forest in the middle of a bustling city.
As I fed ducks chicken-flavoured, Shapes crackers, they got FIERCE and were out for blood like sharks, pecking their duck pals away! I was hit by the natural charm of The Groves which reverberated with birdsong along the 2kms of boardwalk in shaded canopy and shrubs. Riccarton House looked too fancy and possibly haunted so I didn't take a tour; instead, I tracked down the numbered trees of significance within the very good-looking gardens. Plaques on the trunk provide the estimated date; some are an ancient 400-600 years of age, having 'withstood centuries of change', floods and fires.
The next stop on my dessert tour of the country was Strawberry Fare for raspberry drenched, chocolate cake and I fear I was not up to snuff with their high standard of prestigious clientele. I swear the waiter almost visibly grimaced at my unsightly appearance and cheap, pink backpack. The slice was obnoxiously priced at $18.50 - it's like the cost punishes you for liking cake as much as I do! Now the cake, cheeky though it was, can only be rated a solid B minus and that's for the scoop of vanilla ice cream!
Revisiting some of the sights I liked best from my past visit: Canterbury Museum, Botanical Gardens, Cathedral Square and New Regents Street; all are excellent in varying degrees. It's crazy how one day and earthquake can change everything in the city. I'm hopelessly inadequate, artistically but the kids brightening up the city with artwork along roadsides and any formerly, bare wall are GREAT. These pop up projects inspire, motivate and touch hearts.
As recommended by Veronique, I tried out Café Valentino for the best, Italian pasta dish - a giant portion of Fettucine Apollo with smoked chicken, bacon, onion, mushroom, chilli and tomato herb napoletana sauce. It was truly more fantastic than anything I ate in Italy itself for it was passionately pleasing and bought joy to my belly as the plate was splendidly yummy. This was basically everything I love in pasta and for that reason I *NEED* to come back some day now that I've left these lovely lands.
Somehow, that next morning I didn't oversleep by snoozing soundly through my multiple, blaring alarms but it is DISGUSTING to wake up in winter when it's pitch black and polar outside when I exited the YHA. The taxi was already waiting for me, much earlier than my booked pick up time and I'm a total grouch in taxis - especially given the earliness of the dawn.
I wasn't all too fond of our bus driver as he didn't welcome us on board and all but strangled several passengers; hoisting seatbelts over necks as they hadn't buckled. There was no heating, only air con blasting around, above and behind me from every angle. It was nightmarish and I wouldn't have been surprised if frost bite had plagued my body. Slept as best I could, off and on over the 4 hour ride to Oamaru but it was no mean feat when from the off our driver had the radio volume at its highest over the speakers.
On my arrival at YHA Red Kettle, I was miffed that I'd rocked up bang on 12 (like Cinderella only at the stroke of midday not midnight) and reception was already closed until 4pm! Fat chance, I was waiting around and wasting my afternoon! The main building was unlocked but nobody was there; a sign said we were okay leaving our stuff in the lounge but that didn't sit well with me as the landlady wasn't around to watch our possessions. Anyone could walk in off the street and steal anything so it was hard to leave with my instincts screaming at me NOT to but I figured NZ is generally safe in this regard.
After a good, old nose around the fuddy duddy, residence at all the open bedrooms I ventured out into the unknown with 2 uninformative maps taken from one of the empty dorms. As the entire place was deserted, I was left to walk to the I-site to get acquainted with the town. The waterfront and harbour prettiness is swimming with heritage although it's now closed to shipping since 1974.
Friendly Bay was the perfect place for a picnic alongside the sparkling waters, the bluest of blue! It was all very serene until the seagulls came on the scene, eyeing up all my snacks and forcing me to move away. I was then nearer to a play park which is about as crazy as a children's playground can get with its Penny Farthing swing!
Checked out some historical sites of significance like the pre-60's seawalls, wharves, port sheds, mooring chains and bollards. The exposed beach has had over 20 shipwrecks! Then I walked to the Blue Penguin colony and quarry as Oamaru is New Zealand's penguin capital but I didn't end up taking a tour after a staff member informed me that I wouldn't see any there that day. Penguins nest in the abandoned, rock quarry beside the harbour here but I passed up on booking onto the evening watch as only 12 blue penguins had waddled ashore last night. That would have been a let down after seeing masses at Phillip Island in Australia.
Deja Moo is the best name for an old fashioned, ice cream parlour ever but none of the 6 or so flavours enticed me to cough up dosh for a scoop. Delving into Oamaru's Victorian Precinct is kinda mandatory when visiting this fair, seaside town and I did take pleasure in the neo-classical architecture of this era. The streets are delightfully Victorian and rank as 'one of NZ's most impressive streetscapes' with buildings made of local limestone.
Something else Oamaru is famed for is Steampunk and the Headquarters are the best place of all within the heart and soul of the precinct; they take it pretty seriously even holding an annual festival. What is steampunk you ask? A whole world of weird. In fact, it's the Victorians idea of how the future would be and it is celebrated at the HQ. It's just the right amount of strange and IMPOSSIBLE to be bored there.
An array of creepy, nonsensical and industrial thingamajigs clutter up a dark basement forming a showroom of a 'post-apocalyptic vision of what might have been.' Inside you'll find a metagalactic pipe organ playing extraterrestrial sound bytes, eerie dentist chairs, distorted metal creatures, a Doomsday clock ticking down, rusted machinery, gargoyles and a time machine. Flickering lighting, tinged blood red completes the Frankenstein-ish lair; the entire museum is dark and not exclusively in the dimly-lit sense of the word.
The Portal, infinity room gives the illusion of entering an alternate dimension as you step inside. Its a mirrored room with thousands of glowing, LED lights generating rainbow bedazzlement whilst ethereal music synchronised with the light show serenades. The experience is out of this world! Another cool thing about Steampunk HQ is that you are free to touch everything displayed. No Oamaru tourism is complete without a visit to gander at all the wacko doodads and gizmos.
It's still the strangest thing to me that the month of August could be so cold in the Southern Hemisphere and frost became my sworn enemy. After an au revoir with Shun and the French filles I'd met early evening the day before, I went out to soak up the last specks of Oamaru and its olde worlde ambiance. Nothing about this steampunk, penguin playground is forgettable; I love the insanity and to think it wasn't originally on my list to visit!
All 34 acres of Oamaru Public Gardens, one of the oldest public gardens in the country, is all very paintably picturesque. Promenaded back to the Victorian Precinct to marvel at the sections I'd missed first time round. It offers such a gorgeous glimpse into an era gone by that it made me want to live in a village like it. The theme is embraced by local shops and galleries with antique stores, arts and crafts and a vintage, book binders. My last stop was The Collective Café for a hot choc before hopping on my bus returning to Dunedin. I can only praise the pouring of a creamy blend of happiness which I supped up in minutes; I'm only human after all!!
No comments:
Post a Comment