This is the opera house.

This town reminded me of the architecture in Scotland, where I spent my formative teenage years.  Dour, granite and with a large number of sewing shops and fish and chip eateries.  The rain helped too.

Oamaru made a huge amount of money out of its harbour.  It was a deep- water port easily accessible to sailing ships right in the middle of the most fertile area of South Island.  They built a big harbour, warehouses and loading facilities and it took off – the first refrigerated sailing/steam ship took a cargo worth $70M of frozen lamb in the early 1900’s.  The prosperity of the town shows even today  in the architecture, the wide streets, the parks and the general air of organisation – it’s definitely not one of the ramshackle towns, but something planned.