Oamaru Heritage Week

We depart the giant Moeraki boulders of the beach and proceed to Oamaru, a normally quiet little place that is in just the right spot to break up the ride to Mt. Cook National Park. The first thing I see when I step off the bus is people dressed in Victorian clothes.

They seem to be having an argument about a woman’s right to vote....

....a very heated (and very staged) argument.

Police on a penny farthing

There are policemen patrolling the streets on ‘penny farthing cycles’. I’d never seen these ‘live' before.  This means of transport goes back to the 1870s, and the only explanation I can find for the name 'penny farthing' is that the two drastically different sized wheels reminded people of the two coins.  

The front wheel has a diameter of about five feet.  The large size offered greater speed.  Speed is good.  Getting around fast is good.  All I can think of is,  the front tire is taller than I am...how would a person get on that bike to take advantage of the great speed?

Apparently, with a step or stool, a little practice, and good balance, the owner--often a policeman-- could get on and off with ease,  Relative ease. Maybe. But being that high up on a narrow-wheeled bicycle creates a unique set of hazards, like flying over the handlebars when you hit a hole in the road.  I like modern cycles better.

All of the costumes and fun mark the culmination of Heritage Week in Oamaru.  There’s a parade...

a chance to ride an old steam locomotive,

 and a real sense of the period celebrated.

We skip the train ride, enjoy the celebration while dining at a pub, and then learn that the bright, clear sunny weather is giving us our longed-for chance to take a helicopter up to Mount Cook. This adventure has been postponed several times because of weather...We’re not going to miss this long-awaited opportunity.

The recently released movie ‘Suffragette’ addresses the British version of the fight for women’s rights that these people were staging for us in New Zealand.  I haven’t seen the movie, only the trailers, so I can’t offer any critique,  but it is a reminder of the freedoms and liberties so many of us enjoy -- and take for granted.