From Tasman glacier we went directly to a small historic town on the east coast – Oamaru. It is a lovely little place full of charm – what else would you expect from a town that has both world’s smallest penguins and real vintage penny-farthings.

We were in luck – the week we visited Oamaru they had their yearly Victorian Heritage Celebrations, this year themed “Crime&Punishment”. We decided to take part in the festival by participating in a murder mystery challenge. From the local info center we got a starter package that contained info about the victim, all the suspects and possible murder places and weapons as well as the first puzzle we needed to solve to get the first clue. For the clue we needed to call a local number that we would get by analyzing 50 claims about Queen Victoria. For this task we needed internet, so we postponed the challenge and went for lunch, checked Victorian precinct and went to Steampunk HQ.

Steampunk HQ was kind of an interactive museum with all kinds of steampunk stuff. It consisted of two rooms and a yard.

Before heading to camping we took a walk by the sea to the peer. Besides The main natural attraction, the penguins, there is also other marine life, such as cormorants and New Zealand fur seals that can be seen up close right from the pier.

After we went to our campsite. There we got Internet and tried to solve the first puzzle, which turned out to be surprisingly hard. In the evening we went to see penguins.  There are two colonies in Oamaru – shy yellow-eyed penguins and tiny Blue penguins. The yellow-eyed eyed penguins are supposed to come ashore about two hours before sunset, but unfortunately we did not see any. Only lone seal was lying on a big beach.

Blue penguins also stay in the water for most of the time, but when the sun sets they waddle to the shore to feed their offspring. The main viewing point in town is commercialized and you need to pay on order to get there. But you might spot little ones on any boat ramp. We found a place where a couple of other people were also waiting for penguins. After 20 minutes of waiting they started to come. Such a funny sight when these little underwater bullets come to dry land and start to waddle unsurely. Some came alone, others in little groups.