I’m not entirely sure whether we had a particular reason to stop at Oamaru, an eastern coastal town here in New Zealand, but I’m glad we did. Squiffy insisted that we walk the historical building trail, from which the map would help us identify some of the oldest and best built buildings in New Zealand. It’s walks like this that remind me of the fabulous history and culture within immediate reach of most of us Brits in our home country. The New Zealand tourist board might strike me down for writing this, but to my eyes many of these historical buildings would feature on the average British high street… We popped into one building that advertised itself as a community radio station with a display of old radio equipment. It was only after walking into the DJ booth that we realised that the surprised bloke was actually live on air!

One of the main tourist draws of Oamaru is it’s proximity to the Blue and Yellow-Eyed Penguin colonies. Unfortunately for us, the Blue Penguin lookout spot levies a charge of NZ$20 per head to enter the walkway. Given that we walked amongst the penguins at Boulders Beach in South Africa not so long ago, we decided to keep our money in our pockets and visit the rarer Yellow-Eyed Penguins instead. The walkway was way up on the cliff face and a single, solitary dot-of-a-penguin (or council-sanctioned cardboard cut-out) stood stationary on the beach some distance below us. A little further up the path the observation hut–nothing more than a corrugated-iron windbreak–was packed with shivering tourists who were presumably waiting for a little more action. At maximum zoom (and I’ve got a really good zoom lense) we took a snap, turned on our heal and returned to the comfort of the log fire at our hostel.

The next day, we continued our journey south towards Dunedin. Just twenty kilometres out of town is another tourist site — some boulders on a beach. Forgive me, I don’t remember the name of the site at time of writing and it’s time for a whinge. I must say that we’re getting a little sick of having to put our hands in our pockets for a lot of the sightseeing here: New Zealand is full of natural wonders which have often been fenced-off by mankind, with an entrance fee charged at the gate. the gift shop/cafe at the private car park above the boulders charges NZ$2 to walk down their staircase to the site on the beach. Unusually, there was a perfectly good free public car about a five minute walk further along from which the beach could also be accessed. We parked in the public car park and walked to the boulders for free — and didn’t have to struggle up a staircase on our return either. Doesn’t the cafe/gift shop make enough money from thirsty tourists as they return to not need to charge for using their staircase? For us in our car, we had the choice to park a bit further away. The same cannot be said for the tour-bus folk. No doubt the driver is on commission to stop in the private car park and rubs his hands together as each of his passengers pays a couple of dollars for the ‘entrance fee’.

Worse still, Squiffy and I couldn’t understand why the presence of boulders on a beach caused such a stir in the first place. Sure, a geologist would find this interesting, but the sheer volume of people at the site suggests that either (a) there’s a lot of geologists in this world, or more likely (b) somebody is making money off a handful of rocks and a bunch of easily-led tourists. One thing I know for sure is nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd.

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