Our second day in Oamaru was devoted to the murder mystery challenge that was part of Victorian Heritage Celebrations. It was a lot of fun! We were going around town, talking with different people in little shops and cafes, trying to solve the puzzles (some easier, some harder). Apparently we were the first ones to do the challenge, because in many places people had no idea about the whole thing. But everyone was really friendly and together we figured out what needed to be done on order for us to continue with the mystery solving. We also had some coffee and lunch in these places and additionally visited a local brewery, Scott’s.

When we finally got our prime suspect (with a lousy motive), we started our way towards Dunedin. On the way we stopped to see the famous Moeraki boulders on the beach and camped on a nice little spot called Trotters Gorge. In the evening we tried to visit Katiki point to try again to see yellow-eyed penguins, but to our surprise we found closed gates with no possibility of entering the park.

In the morning we visited Shag point, where you can also spot New Zealand fur seals and sometimes sea lions. We were lucky enough to see a mother seal with its cub.

When a couple of days later we came back to Oamaru, the town was starting the main events of the Victorian Heritage Celebrations. We went to check out the taking of Victorian photo 2017 and naming the winners of costume challenge. 

In the evening we also tried to go to the local antique book store to hear travel stories of Mongolia, but the place was so packed we wouldn’t fit in. Instead we went to Criterion hotel for dinner and had a really nice cider. The place was almost full and we got two local farmers to join our dinner. From them we heard interesting stories about life of sheep (e.g. we didn’t know that sheep can have post-pregnancy depression) and local farming.