Friday March 10, 2023 - Oamaru to Balclutha

 Who comes up with these town names? Between the British influence and the Maori history, I can't tell which ones are whose names.

We slept in at the Brydone Hotel in downtown Oamaru. It is in one of the old stone buildings and it used to be a huge hotel. Now the downstairs is full of meeting and conference rooms and our room is one of several upstairs. Deb caught a double rainbow out the hotel window this morning. 

We went for a walk this morning to find the Countdown grocery store to look for a particular gorp mix we stumbled on. We also re-upped our fruit and veggie supplies and the nice lady at the "check yourself out" aisle said we should go to the Short Black coffee shop. One cool thing with the self checkout here is that there is a camera overhead that takes a picture of what you are checking out and tries to identify what it is. Round red thing is an apple? Long orange thing is a carrot? Not super accurate but pretty cool that they're trying it. This ain't no third rate country when it comes to technology.

So off to the Short Black to get a flat white for me and a chai latte for Deb. Then back to the room, packed, and headed back south on Rt1.   

But first stop is a weird little rock outcropping on the beach called Moeraki Boulders Beach. These things are round, there are only a dozen or two, and there doesn't appear to be any reason for them to be here. There were quite a few people on the beach as it was low tide and a good time to see them.

Back on Rt 1 with the trucks. This is the major road so trucks are to be expected. It is also a narrow road with a speed limit 100 kph (62 mph) so reasonable.

We had to get gas and we have been having trouble getting the serve yourself gas pumps to accept our credit cards. It keeps saying it didn't get a PIN number, but it never asked me for one? So we've learned to stop at places with a real person inside.

We stopped at the Moeraki Tavern for lunch and had a nice chat with the owner. Same story we hear everywhere, they can't get help so they limit their hours and offerings. Covid affected everyone here.

Next stop was Dunedin. This town is big, about 128,000 people. This is a historic port town, port still in operation, and it was settled by Scottish folks in the mid-1800's. In the late 1800's they built a lot of beautiful buildings and a beautiful train station. We found a parking spot downtown and started by touring the railway station. Very ornate with nice glazed tiles and stained glass windows. These guys were showing off for sure.

There is an amazing museum just down the street, which is also free, and it is very modern and high tech and does a nice job explaining when and how everyone got here. Lots of ocean crossings, early whaling business (oil for lamps), and then what really put them on the map was when refrigerated cargo ships were invented and they started exporting meat. Mostly sheep I imagine, just like today. We have seen 3 or 4 double decker sheep transport trucks on the road the last couple days, some empty and some full. I suppose they all end up as frozen lamb chops on ships.

We spent quite a while in the museum and then walked into the center of town to a central park called the Octagon. Lots of Friday after work pub gatherings spilling into the streets. 

Back to the car and back on Rt 1 south. We ended up at the Helensborough Motor Inn in Balclutha, where the nice owner showed us around. We walked down the hill, across the bridge, and found the Raj Indian Restaurant and both had a delicious curry and rice. Then one last grocery store check and walk back up the hill to our room.