Oamaru

Oamaru, the end of the line for the A2O (Alps 2 Ocean) Cycle Trail. It's worth taking some time to look around this town—there are some interesting sights.

The home of Scotts—Oamaru's own brew.

Further along there's a place where you can see blue penguins coming ashore at dusk or going out to sea at dawn. Right now, there's just a few fur seals.

Penguins come ashore and go into these boxes for the night. There's a charge to stay here after 4:30pm to see them, and photography is banned. So we decided to wait for another opportunity.

Nearby, this wharf appears to have been abandoned to the shags and gulls.

 Most of them were focussed on their end-of-day preening. This is a spotted shag.

Oamaru Railway Station

The Victorian Precinct has numerous old buildings and places to explore.

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Nugget Point

We visited Nugget Point on a foggy day and sadly, the visibility was poor. The closer we got to the end of the point, the foggier it became. Nevertheless, we got a taste of how magnificent the scenery is in this area. We are in the Catlins, southeast of Balclutha.
You can drive out toward the lighthouse, then need to park your car and walk the rest of the way.

Nearing the lighthouse. There IS a lighthouse at the end of this track!

There it is!

As you climb around the side of the lighthouse, there is a viewing platform. It was disappointing to know that the view from here would be stunning if we could just see it. But the fog was there to stay.

Looking down from part of the viewing platform poking out from the cliff on the south side is this wee bay.

On the walk back to the car park, looking back towards the tip were these rock structures. I understand that the view east out to sea from the lighthouse would have revealed more of these "nuggets", had the fog chosen to reveal its secrets. And these are what Nugget Point gets its name from.

On the way back, there was a little less fog. Looking back, you can see a viewing platform sticking out from the side of this cliff. This was by the lighthouse and where I stood a short time ago to take a photo of the bay below.

Looking down on the northern side of the path, there were these rock pools—and fur seals. Not so easy to see—they looked a little like slugs on the rocks.

The closer we got back to the car park, the less fog there was. The path at this point was really pretty. It was a shame the fog spoilt the view out nearer the point, but it was clearly a beautiful spot to visit.

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