Moeraki Boulders & Victorian Festival in Oamaru – Day 179, Part 1

So today we’re gonna be seeing some perfectly spherical boulders as well as seeing some perfectly Victorian people in Oamaru as well as some perfectly little blue penguins.

This morning we are leaving Dunedin really early because we have a long drive ahead of us. We are going to the little township of Oamaru but beforehand we are stopping at the world famous Moeraki Boulders.

Alright so we just arrived at the Moeraki Boulders beach and it’s probably high tide so we’re probably not going to see no shoot. But that’s the only time we actually could come here since we’re going all the way to Oamaru today. So we’ll do our best to show you something anyway.

So it really looks like we have come here at high tide. All we can see is the very tops of the Moeraki boulders which are famous for being very perfectly spherical shaped boulders on the beach. We’ve seen many amazing photos of these boulders and we really expected to be able to see something as magical today but here they are the top of the Moeraki Boulders getting splashed by the waves.

Nevertheless, unphased we still make our way as close as we can to the boulders.

Yeah, so luckily these stairs were here because we would have been wet feet.

So this is another one of those places in New Zealand where you need to come at low tide, just like Tunnel Beach, Hot Water Beach and much more.

I’m feeling a little stupid for thinking we could come here just whenever we wanted.

Now the interesting story is how the boulders have been formed. the waves over the years have eroded the mudstone cliffs exposing the more resistant boulders. And the boulders themselves have been formed by concretion which is a process on mineral cement compacted together. And the result are those perfectly spherical stones in which tourists get to take amazing pictures.

How did you enjoy the Moeraki boulders? Well it wasn’t quite the experience I was imagining for the Moeraki Boulders but yeah it was a lot more wet than I realised.

Thankfully, these are not the only perfectly spherical boulders that we can see in New Zealand. We will get another opportunity when we reach the Hokianga area of the North Island. But for now we have one last high tide conundrum to tackle before we leave.

A bit of a splash.

It’s with wet feet that we now make our way back to the campervan to hit the road once again this time all the way to Oamaru which is the Victorian capital of New Zealand as well as being the steampunk capital and we see that straight away when we arrive just in time for the Victorian Fete Weekend.

He’s just having some technical difficulties.

The Victorian fete is a two day event happening every single year in Oamaru and that’s a bit of a mish mash of steampunk, bagpipe players and a ton of really old stuff put together by a bunch of really passionate people.

It’s really cool to see all those steam engines and all those other creations all around the town but the main event is going to be happening a little bit later this afternoon where there is a massive parade all around the Oamaru township.

The reason this fete is held in Oamaru is because most of the buildings in the town are actually Victorian as per the bag pipes I don’t really know why they’re here.

Is it comfortable? No. It’s not.

While everybody is getting ready for the Victorian Parade this afternoon we are strolling around the town and seeing a little bits and pieces of this parade coming up. It’s pretty cool to see everybody making their way around town to their meeting points before the parade begins. And it gives me exactly enough time to go shopping.

Well, probably interesting, probably reasonably priced. I’m interested.

I kind of want it for 2 bucks. I just bought it. Did you actually buy it? Yeah. Why? What are we doing with this? Look it has a wide lens and a non wide lens. Does it actually work? Yeah, probably. Look at it. Does it look like it works?

So in short, screw GoPro, this is what I’m going to be using from now one. Look at that, quick release handle. here you are. Wide angle and narrow angle. Stableisation of the elbow. Focus auto focus. oh what the hell? and you can go on auto or manual. You can’t really do any better than that.

Armed with his ridiculous camera, Robin and I are now watching the Victorian Parade which is a pretty surreal feeling because surrounded by all these Victorian buildings and then watching people on penny farthings and dressed up like they’re from The Victorian era actually feels like we have walked into a time warp here.

We are seeing all these really old steam engines as well as other vintage vehicles and the really cool thing about this parade as well is that a lot of the locals have got dressed up in vintage victorian clothing under the banners of what occupation they are in, for instance there is a bunch of people from the hospital dressed up in their medical gear from the victorian age it’s really entertaining to see and we’re super glad that we’ve arrived in Oamaru at this time of the year. the Victorian fete happens around mid-november every year so definitely go and check it out if you get the chance.

And while watching the rest of the parade going i’m going to go through a few facts about the victorian era that have been told to me by the participants of the parade first up black was the fashion statement everybody was dressing up in black because the air was so polluted in London that well that was the only thing that wasn’t stained and about make-up women did not used to wear make-up in the victorian era that was only reserved for prostitutes that was very very tacky back in the day. Also back in the days, people didn’t really bathe.

After the parade Laura and I are keeping the sugar level high with an ice cream because we are not done today. We are heading to the lovely blue penguin colony which is an awesome place to check out the blue penguins coming back from the sea. We did check that out when back in Dunedin but in Oamaru the colony is bigger and even more active so don’t miss that out in the part two of this day 179.

Wide angle and non wide angle. Works better than a fricken gorpo. I don’t know what you’re complaining about it works better than a gopro look how crooked your… I’ll do that.