Oamaru: New Zealand’s living Victorian town

Oamaru: New Zealand’s living Victorian town| 26 September 2014 | $55.00 | Penguin

In Oamaru: New Zealand’s living Victorian town, writer Paul Sorrell and photographer Graham Warman capture the unique character of a town where locals get about on penny farthings and parade in everything from bonnets and bustles to steampunk-inspired costumes.

Oamaru’s outstanding architectural heritage and the fascinating characters who choose to live a Victorian-themed lifestyle make this one of New Zealand’s most colourful towns. The people, places and events that lend Oamaru its authentic character are celebrated in this special book.

Ornately decorated whitestone buildings that in the 1800s housed banks, hotels and grain stores have been lovingly restored and become home to thriving artisan businesses – including brewers and whisky makers, a bookbinder, a soap maker, a working woolstore, a baker and a textile cooperative – that have transformed this South Island centre into one of the world’s best examples of a living Victorian town.

Stroll along bustling Harbour and Tyne streets and you’re likely to encounter locals bedecked in nineteenth-century outfits. Visit during the annual Victorian fête and you could easily think you’ve slipped back 150 years in time as women in crinolines and gentlemen wearing fancy waistcoats and top hats parade through the streets or gather for croquet and traditional high tea. Boasting more than just a collection of well-preserved historic buildings, Oamaru is a Victorian town at work.

Oamaru attracts international and local visitors both for its carefully preserved architecture and Victorian character and increasingly its steampunk attractions (Jules Verne meets industrial gothic). Locals hope to one day have Oamaru designated a World Heritage site.

With recipes from celebrated local restaurants, colourful insights into the variety of artisan businesses that call the town home and an in-depth look at the extraordinary phenomena of the steampunk movement, Oamaru: New Zealand’s living Victorian town showcases the best the area has to offer and proves that Oamaru truly is a town with something for everyone.

About the authors

Paul Sorrell is a writer, editor and wildlife photographer based in Dunedin.

He has collaborated three times previously with photographer Graham

Warman, on his first book, the best-selling Fleurs Place (Penguin, 2008), on

Trail: Riding the Otago Central Rail Trail (Penguin, 2011) and on Peninsula:

Exploring the Otago Peninsula (Penguin, 2013).

Graham Warman is an award-winning photographer with offices in both

Dunedin and Central Otago. He trained in London, learning from some

of the UK’s leading commercial photographers, and now specialises in

architectural and advertising photography. His architectural images have

helped win awards for many of his clients, and his photography has been

featured in magazine articles as well as culinary and travel books. www.