Our next stop was Oamaru, also known as the steampunk capital of the world. I’m not entirely sure how or why this city earned this title, but the plethora of Victorian architecture certainly contributed to it. We really enjoyed our time here, as there were many charming shops that sparked our curiosity. We also absolutely loved our lodgings, as it had a very “Hobbiton” type of coziness to it. It was hosted The Bookbinder, who was quite the interesting person, and even has a beer named after him! You can read more about his story in the Beerologue section.
The Criterion Hotel, a fine example of the type of Victorian architecture found in the city’s old town.
Our cozy little nook at the Bookbinders’s Retreat. The place was as cozy as it was tiny, and was decorated in an authentic Victorian style that even Holmes and Watson would feel right at home in.
As an added bonus, the place came with a cat. Instant 5-star rating from Dominique.
It even had a tiny kitchen! It was so small you could believe that a hobbit lived here.
Steampunk HQ was a steampunk-themed art gallery, and contained many different installations mostly consisting of cobbled-together industrial machinery.
You could actually play the organ, where each key played a different sound effect.
The interior had almost a haunted house sort of feel, well a steampunk-inspired haunted house.
Yes, that’s a dog made out of old engine parts, maybe even from the car it’s standing on.
They had a room called “The Portal”, which was a room where the floor, walls and ceiling consisted of mirrors, making for some interesting “endless reflection” effects.
The fairy lights blinked and strobed in weird and unusual patterns, sometimes fast and seizure-inducting, other times slow relaxing.
They had a whole outside area, with even some installations that you could climb onto. Here’s an old bus made to look like some retro-futuristic train.
This would look right at home in the Mad Max universe.
I don’t even know what this is (a cannon?), or what it was before. If you look on the roof you can see someone fishing with a giant fish hook.
I don’t know how giant insects relate to steampunk, but they looked kind of cool on the side of the building.
After the museum we walked around the old town a bit and encountered many interesting little shops and galleries. One of them, called The Grainstore Gallery, was fantastically decorated, and I don’t really know what kind of store it was. An Art Gallery? Antiques? Gift Shop? All three!
It still has a steampunk feel, but with more of a theatric theme.
We left Oamaru and before heading further north, we took a quick detour south to Moeraki Beach, famous for its round boulders.
Apparently these were formed by a slow buildup of minerals around a central core. So, you could say these are “pearl stones”!
I’m all for visiting natural rock formations, especially ones you could climb! But, as far as these types of roadside attractions go, the Moeraki Boulders did not hold our attention for very long, and we left questioning whether our detour was worth it or not.
