Criterion Hotel
On the corner.
Christoph Strässler — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Bernard Spragg. NZ from Christchurch, New Zealand — Public domain · Willem van Valkenburg — CC BY 2.0 · Karora — Public domain · AnnWoolliams — CC BY-SA 4.0
Oamaru's Victorian Precinct is two streets near the harbour lined with 19th-century commercial buildings of creamy white limestone, with carved ornament, columns and decorated facades. Old grain stores now hold galleries, workshops, shops and cafés. Most of the buildings on Harbour and Tyne Streets went up between the 1870s and 1890s, in locally quarried limestone known as Oamaru stone or whitestone. They are widely seen as among the most complete Victorian commercial streetscapes in New Zealand. The Oamaru Whitestone Civic Trust was formed after a 1988 report and now owns and restores more than 15 buildings in the precinct, including the ornate Criterion Hotel on the corner of the two streets. You walk the two streets and step into the galleries and workshops; Victorian heritage celebrations are held here each year. The old harbour is close by. It is about 600 m in a straight line from central Oamaru. The stone glows warmest before sunset.
On the corner.
Now galleries.
At sunset.
Harbour and Tyne Streets, Oamaru, Otago
One to three hours.
Yes, cafés and bakeries.