Hello travellers —
It's me, Petrina, here with a short(ish) dispatch on the joy of the unexpected, and a small town that has a forever place in my heart. If you don't want to hear from me, you can always unsubscribe here.
I sometimes find it hard to be surprised in New Zealand. Not to say I find it hard to find awe, which for me is a very different and distinct feeling; but I don’t often find myself agape.
So it was a delight to arrive in Oamaru, a small town on a nondescript stretch of the South Island's east coast.
Most New Zealand towns feel somewhat similar. There is a main street, sometimes called simply Main Street, and along this thoroughfare are the same storefronts that have stood shoulder to shoulder for decades – Farmers, and Mitre 10, a $2 shop, a bake house, and maybe Farmlands Co-operative.
Smaller towns have dairies (corner stores) with striped blue and white Tip Top ice cream signage and a parade of people strolling in either barefoot or clad in jandals (flip flops) seeking out a cold drink or a $1 bag of lollies (sweets).
Away from the main streets, one-story weatherboard houses sit on generous lawns, which are mowed by a man in rugby shorts (stubbies) and a black singlet on Sundays.
Cracked concrete, kids barreling down the road on bicycles, two cars per house, and a recycling bin full of beer bottles – it doesn’t matter where in New Zealand you are, there’s a deep sense of familiarity in slow New Zealand neighbourhood life.
Which meant I was very surprised to arrive in Oamaru and see that old tractors here were not left to rust in heaps beside hay sheds, but repurposed – welded, mangled and transformed into Steampunk approximations of flying trains.
How does Steampunk fit into this little farming town?
Oamaru has a Victorian era heart, a few blocks of buildings carved from white limestone quarried from nearby hills. The ornate buildings were once warehouses for wool and grain gathered from the surrounding countryside and shipped from the port, the grand facades leftover from generation before the economy crumbled, before this town was seen as a backwater.
This in itself feels surprising. So few New Zealand towns have this kind of architecture that feels unique and arresting. But, Victorian buildings would just be Victorian buildings, if an entire town didn’t decide to use this heritage precinct as a good reason to take on the mantle of Steampunk Capital of the World.
What is Steampunk? Steampunk is the delightfully mad genre of science fiction born out of a collision of Victorian era steam powered machinery and elements of a fantastical, alternate world where people combine top hats or Victorian dresses with retro futuristic aviator goggles. It is as wondrously perplexing as it sounds.
This makes time feel confusing in Oamaru - a befuddling mix of past and future, and occasionally a complete sense of otherness, outside of time completely.
At least, that is how I felt in the light and colour Portal inside Steampunk HQ.
Steampunk HQ, the epicentral playground of Oamaru is unmissable, thanks to a blimp and locomotive outside the old grain elevator building, which both move for the price of a gold coin. Inside, there are rooms full of sculptures and curios that enthusiastically embrace this fictional world, including a “Metagalactic Pipe Organ” that plays extraterrestrial sounds.
Oamaru reminded me that no, not everything is predictable. Not all small towns lack imagination. In fact sometimes it is the forgotten corners, the places scooped out by economic depressions, on the way to or from other bigger places, that can surprise you the most.
I stayed at Oamaru Backpackers which offers a lot more than the humble name would have you believe (there is a massage chair overlooking the ocean and a garden full of fresh herbs). I loved the Buggy Robot Gallery. I ate at the Tees Street Cafe and took a pie for the road from the Harbour Street Bakery, on whose doors is painted "It's famous because it's good". I don't disagree.
This is a newsletter from me, Petrina Darrah. Shipped from New Zealand.
If you enjoyed this, please consider forwarding it to a friend.
If not, unsubscribe instantly.
