It never rains in Oamaru

It never rains in Oamaru

Tuesday, December 28, Oamaru NZ

I headed to bed last night around 9:00. James was falling asleep in front of the television and I was happy to get into my amazing bed and finish reading email before turning off the light at 10:00. I think I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I slept soundly until 2:30 when I woke to the pounding of rain on the tin roof. Once I determined what time it was I was able to go back to sleep until 6:15. I found my way to the kitchen (and, believe me, you can easily get lost in this house) and James made me a cup of cappuccino.  I was content with just some hot croissants for breakfast, along with a glass of cranberry juice.  Mom joined us and we looked out on the dismal morning. Not only was it pouring but the wind was coming from the south (namely Antarctica) so it was quite chilly. Hey, New Zealand, this is supposed to be summer!

After breakfast I decided to try out the enormous bathtub in my room. I filled it with warm water and lavender bath salts and for the first time in my adult life I was able to literally float in a bathtub! It was glorious!

What to do on a rainy day in Oamaru? We all piled into the Subaru Forester and went shopping. Mom and I needed some toiletries that we neglected to pack enough of. We also did some souvenir shopping. I ordered a merino/possum wool vest for John and purchased a convertible cape/shawl/skirt for myself.

We made several stops looking for a sweatshirt for mom (but since this is summer apparently none of the stores are stocking sweatshirts) and wound up at the blue penguin colony thinking that as a tourist attraction they might have souvenir sweatshirts. Anyway it sounded plausible. No such luck. Even though it was raining lightly the James’ and I decided to take the day walk through the little penguin colony. The penguins come up out of the ocean every evening and have their homes in little wooden houses on the shore. They have a building with viewing tubes so you can see into some of these little penguin homes and other nests are located along a walkway. I managed to get some photos of penguins inside their nests purely by sheer luck since I couldn’t see into the little boxes and the ground was too wet to kneel down to look inside. I just bent down and aimed my camera into the entrance and took my chance that there was something there.

A Blue Penguin chick at home

The gardens at Pen-y-bryn

We went out to lunch right near the penguin colony at one of Sally Ann Donnelly’s restaurants called Portside. (For James' birthday I contacted Sally to surprise James with a little celebration at her pub, Fat Sally's, and I wanted to settle my bill with her.) James asked if Sally was around but she is on holiday and it looks like we won’t get a chance to meet her. For lunch I had a chicken curry, the two James’ had fish and chips and mom had a mushroom and bacon stack. The afternoon was spent quietly until 5:00 when James had some neighbors in for drinks. We finally got to meet some of the people he is always referring to, and they were all charming. The sun finally came out late in the afternoon and tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and warmer.

Dinner tonight was lamb shanks with olives, broccoli (?) and roasted sweet potatoes. I was pretty exhausted so I excused myself and got into bed. One problem with going to bed early here is that it doesn't seem to get dark at night until after 10:00, and even then it's not fully dark. It's like being in Alaska in June.

Hydrangeas at Pen-y-bryn