C'est LA viE

After some rest yesterday, I woke up early this morning to explore this beautiful small town - Oamaru.

Thanks to ondy, i got to see the magnificent view on top of the hill, seeing Oamaru sitting beside the beautiful harbour.

 I dint stay long at the lookout point as it was too windy and cold, but good to see the view.

Then Ondy brought me to the penquins crossing area. Apparently, penquins will cross the road in the evening after their long day hunting for fish in the sea.

The road is just right beside the harbour, and penquins have their 'house' at the other hilly side after crossing the road

There is a penquin visiting centre at the end of the road, and visitors got to see the penquins crossing with administration fee

but actually locals choose to see the wild penquins crossing right outside the visitor centre too, and this is what we going to do later tonight.

Before the sunset, as the visitor centre is opened for free (only in day time), we just explored around

I am quite satisfied with the 'fake' penquins =)

and also got to see wild seal from a very far distance (u dont want get too near as they real aggressive and will attack human)!

Later, Ondy left me alone at the town while she back home busy with her stuff, and I went to the newly built playground

Oamaru is such an artistic place, where there are so many surprise to be seen.

The playground is very unique, seems like it was built based on the old train station, many reusable items around

for example, the bench at the ground was designed with the train compartments.

I specifically like the old tree around the playground...

The playground actually quite desolate, perhaps because there was not many ppl around, and it was very spacious...

but i really love how they design the swing or other facilities, making the playing area more unique and modern

The playground is located at the Friendly bay... good to come here for a visit.

Then i walked around the famous heritage Victorian precinct area, it is actually a narrow lane with many local artist shops

apparently there are many popular artist grow and based their art workshop at Oamaru, interesting~

I was real lucky because I heard foot steps coming from the top and realized there are also some shops on the second floor

or else I will regret i missed this:

It is called the grainstore gallery, and according to Ondy, the lady (who also is the artist) who owned this gallery is a very famous artist

her artwork which also exhibited in this gallery is very popular in Europe!

I can tell, as her artwork really very beautiful, really masterpiece!

 I also love how she designed her gallery, i felt like i just back to the old time, difference was just i am not european =P

Then i continued explored the precinct area and met this cute girl, she was shouting: 'please ask for a photo!'

I was curious because i actually couldnt hear what she was saying at first and then only realized she wants a photo

why nt? I asked her dad politely for a photo, and her dad was like: u are not doing bad thing are u?

Hell no, do i look like a bad ppl?

I actually shopped a few stuff at this old area, bought a lime stone art statue, then went in to beads shop and own my first designed bracelet

Then, yea u are right, is lunch time!

I went to the Star and Garter restaurant where i sit facing the famous steampunk HQ building, (too bad it was closed today) and ordered a blue cod and chips

After lunch i just continued walking around the small town

and yes, Oamaru just won the title of the Sharpest town in NZ yesterday, and i am honoured to visit here as a tourist at this sharpest place

I did think they deserved the title because Oamaru is really a cool place to visit.

Then I also went to the famous whitestone cheese factory at Oamaru

too bad photo was prohibited at the factory, but it is actually a very small factory, though the business scale is small, they produced very good cheese

I actually got to taste 3 quite big pieces of cheese of the day, and impressively their blue cheese - windsor blue is so yummy!

I am not a blue cheese fan, and actually i hate blue cheese because of the smell, i only eat blue cheese on pizza, but this windsor blue cheese is really good that the smell is not too strong and the taste really flavorful! I was hesistate wherther i should try out their cheese platter or cheese cake as i real full but it was such a pity as i already here.

So ended up, i bought this cheese platter for NZD5! It is actually good price because the cheese was sliced in big piece and the lady was really kind to me. She allowed me to choose my favourite cheese to be placed on the board. I chose double cream as i havent tried this kind of cheese before

Haha i couldnt think of other cheese variety, but in general the lady chose a good combination of cheese for me.

I love the nutty cheese, the 4th one from the right, which is cremy harvati. There is also other unique cheese like goat cheese or combination of goat and dairy cheese.

Overall i ranked the windsor blue cheese for the best i had today. I will definitely miss cheese a lot after leaving NZ.

As mentioned above, Ondy brought me to see the wild penquin crossing at night

and here it is~

actually we were late as most penquins finished crssing and gone earlier then we expected due to winter

well, we were lucky at least we spotted a few...we almost knocked down one small blue penquin upon our arrival, thank god Ondy brake on time

then i spotted the blue penquin with my perfect dark vision =P under dim light (they hate light), and got to capture them real close

It is so tiny and cute, and i had to be real quiet and motionless to approach it. Thus my camera function real bad under dark condition, i only able capture one clear photo

but good enough, and u can see the blue penquin is hiding its head (really remind me of ostrich)

After seeing those tiny cute little ones, we purposely stopped at the Opera house at town to see the colorful LED light

they changed color like every 3 seconds, very beautiful but Ondy was complaining they need to pay so much for it. (from taxes of cause!)

Haha good thing take effort and money =)