Oamaru, New Zealand Hotels, Vacations, Tourism

The former port town of OAMARU , 85km south of Timaru on SH1, is one of New Zealand's more alluring (and undersold) provincial cities, making it a relaxed place to spend a day or two. Perhaps its most immediate appeal is the presence of two penguin colonies on the outskirts of town, which provide an unmissable opportunity to observe both the diminutive blue penguins and their larger yellow-eyed cousins. The town itself has attractions too, not least the well-preserved core of nineteenth-century buildings of its central historic district , built of the distinctive cream-coloured local limestone, which … more »