Whitestone City

[vilakins]

Oamaru has three major attractions: steampunk (see next post), the old Victorian Precinct and other beautiful whitestone buildings like the Opera House. A new tourist attraction, Whitestone City, opened a couple of weeks ago and they held a free open day for locals. It's an immersive experience with lots of things you can do.


The penny-farthing carousel for kids (and the occasional adult).


Shop stocked with old items


Apothecary


Schoolroom; map is 1928 IIRC


School teacher; she's wrong though


Facing the other way from the other desks, the dunce's one


Dining room


Drawing room


Assorted games: hobby horse, croquet, and marble; I loved marbles as a kid. We had the ordinary clear ones with a coloured twist in the centre, prized "American marbles" which were all coloured glass, and one large "bomber" which was dropped to try to smash the opponent's marble ot send it out of the ring.

Comments

[gwendraith]

Fabulous pictures, I would have loved visiting there, just my sort of thing. A bit scary that I had a desk and chair like those when I was at school, it wasn't a dunce one though ;)

[vilakins]

There's heaps of Victoriana here: penny farthings, people like my neighbour who dress for that era every day... you'd love it!

I think we had some desks like that at primary school. At least they're a lot better than those American chair-and-desk combos that don't allow adjustment or AFAIK cater for left-handers.

[judo100]

What fun, wish I could see it in person. Alas, for most of us, our school days weren't the best days of our lives. They should be, but almost never are. Sigh.

[vilakins]

It was all up hill from there. University was pretty good, and I had a lot of fun travelling and working, back when people had senses of humour at work and sometimes even played games. No fun after the accountants all took over and tried to herd the programmers, sigh - but still better than school.