‘I can’t believe I haven’t stayed here before’: The Wonderland of Oamaru
A town on New Zealand Pacific coast with a remarkable surplus of architecture and culture for its size, amid threatened nature.
Published in
13 min readFeb 1, 2020
TRAVELLING up to the place of light and down the water of tears, I arrived at Oamaru. It’s a town of fourteen thousand on the Pacific coast of the South Island of New Zealand.
You might think a town of fourteen thousand wouldn’t be all that distinguished. Well, if so, you obviously haven’t been to Oamaru. A town of fourteen thousand that has an opera house!
The archetypal New Zealander is often depicted as some sort of farmer or cowboy type. And people often think that New Zealand towns must be pretty rough and ready for the same reason.
