New Zealand - Oamaru

Moving from Mount Cook NP down to Oamaru, the road follows a set of lakes, again with dams for hydroelectric production.  This is the Aviemore Dam

With the river flowing to the next one

Reminded me a bit of a newer, smaller St Chads, Manchester

'...and oh my God, I cannot believe it, I've never been this far away from home....'

Oamaru is quite a pretty town, on the east coast of the south island

There's more than the usual number of limestone buildings here, all built around the end of the 1800's when this place was big for exporting refridgerated meat and therefore rich for that time.  This is St Lukes Church, which is a bit better looking than St Lukes, near my home

It's was the same size as Los Angeles was, back at that time

It's quite a relaxed place with a chilled vibe

And some very odd bits of mechanical art around the place

This weekend, it's a fete where everyone dresses in a Victorian style and they have sculpture contests and ride penny farthings around.  Here's someone who obviously can't wait...

'Thinking 4th dimensionally', obviously

Some of Metrolink Managers and decision makers think and react as this guy would......

The Public Gardens in Oamaru are fabulous

In fact, of all the gardens we've been to around Asia, Australia and New Zealand, these are second only to Penang, Malaysia's Botanical Gardens

Some of the residents are very friendly

There's loads of ducks here..

And flowers, unsurprisingly perhaps..

We stopped for a picnic

...and I forget what else...

It had an aviary too, with some of the birds eyeing me a bit suspiciously...

Looks like the rose garden had just been pruned

Never did get the hang of those daisy chains...

The soldiers memorial takes pride of place on the main street, as it should

Who would need to filter through traffic when you can ride straight over the cars?!

There was a whiskey distiller who unfortunately weren't do tours when we arrived  :-(

But the tasting was still on :-)  There's an 18 year, 21 year, 23 year and 25 year single malt in a row, going from a usual 40% for the first 2.  The last 2 are straight from the cask and were 53% and 56% volume alcohol, hic!