Oamaru

The coastal city of Oamaru became wealthy in the late 1800s due to its role in shipping frozen meat (mutton and lamb) to England. That trade no longer exists, but many historic buildings remain. Most of the buildings in this small city of 13,000 were built from a local limestone called Oamaru stone. This is a view of one of the smaller streets near the wharves:

For pictures of the more majestic buildings in the center of town, see the Wikipedia entry here.

Oamaru is hilly, like San Francisco (but smaller). This view is from a hill in town:

South of town is the Bushy Beach Scenic Reserve where a small colony of yellow-eyed penguins live (see next post):

Our first night of camping was at Oamaru. We stayed at the Oamaru Top 10 Holiday Park, our first of several stays at this chain. This photo, taken the next morning, shows the campervan with the sleeping pod on top extended: