Had a lovely drive from Mt Cook to Oamaru, back on the east coast. There's always somewhere that I want to stop and take pictures so journeys take a lot longer than they should.

The further south I go the more I see the Scottish influence. From the place names to the odd scottish word still used in daily chat. On this drive I passed Lake Aviemore which is just down the road from Benmore.

Arriving in Oamaru I found my hostel and found out I'd been upgraded to a room of my own! Win! I like meeting people in dorms but my own space is bliss! Oamaru is a decent sized town with a very colonial feel about it. I'd timed it to be around for the Victorian festival so there were old steam engines and people dressed up wandering around the entire weekend. Just brilliant! The locals really throw themselves into it and there are costume hire shops for tourists to join in the fun!

I met two lovely Swedish girls who I joined to wander round the Victorian market and farmers market in the old quarter. Lots of show, stalls, costumes, food and I found the whisky shop so a wee drma as well! Great day!

Oamaru is also good for penguin spotting and the have a blue penguin colony that you can go and visit but i decided to be a grip and not pay but try a cove round the coast a bit for some yellow eyed penguins instead. I arrived wuite early so I wasn't hopeful of seeing any as they usually only come back on to dry land at dusk but while I was on the beach a fair bit further down I saw two waddling back up the beach! Delighted! They usually avoid humans but I was either far enough away or they just didn't care.

The next day I visited the Steampunk Museum. Very different place. Very weird place. And quite creepy too. But amazing the skill and workmanship that these guys have to create the stuff I saw. Steampunk is now very big in Oamaru and it's one of the things that's helped rejuvinate the town.

I then headed further south to the beach at Moeraki where the famous boulders are. I'm glad I went but wish I'd timed it better as it was very busy with people taking selfies and jumpng all over the boulders for pictures.

From there I was heading inland again to Central Otago where I was hoping to get a job!

Lx