The Steampunk Town of Oamaru | New Zealand

Last updated on 11 April 2018

This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase with one of these links, I recieve a small commission at no additional cost to you. Read the full Affiliate Policy.

A stop in at Oamaru proved to be well worth the time.

As my friend and I road tripped back up the South Island of New Zealand from Dunedin, we stopped in at Oamaru, a small town on the coast, famous for being New Zealand’s steampunk capital. And it really was.

While the steampunk museum was too pricey for our cheap pockets, we did enjoy wandering around the outside, checking out the public displays and spotting all the steampunk stores down sweet cobbled streets. Speaking of cobbled, Oamaru has a historic downtown area, which I had no idea about until we drove through. The buildings are beautiful, and one street in particular reminded me of England.

Even the lure of a sign that read ‘book binders assistant wanted’ wasn’t quite enough to make me up and move there, but I wouldn’t say no to a return trip. I’m sure there’s much more to discover in Oamaru than our short 1.5 hours would allow, but I feel like we got a good taste of an interesting coastal town.

Have you been to Oamaru? Did you go to the steampunk museum? Was it worth it? Let me know in the comments!