{"id":17443,"date":"2012-12-02T06:30:05","date_gmt":"2012-12-01T17:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=17443"},"modified":"2012-12-01T20:05:24","modified_gmt":"2012-12-01T07:05:24","slug":"steampunk-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2012\/12\/02\/steampunk-holiday\/","title":{"rendered":"Steampunk Holiday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I posted<\/a> about Queenstown, its spectacular natural beauty and historic heritage—but there was another important aspect to the trip, that began in Queenstown but was most notably encountered in coastal Oamaru<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yes, the holiday had steampunk elements. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

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TSS Earnslaw - 100 yrs old this year<\/p><\/div>\n

In Queenstown it was more steam than punk, making the return lake crossing in the coal-fired steamer the TSS Earnslaw. Still, for those who love the steampunk genre, or simply the mechanical age, staring down into the Earnslaw’s engine room with the coal being shovelled and all the pistons, widgits, and intricate gadgetry of a complex mechanical engine working—well, it’s quite something.<\/p>\n

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The working engine room<\/p><\/div>\n

As is that smokestack, which does make one reflect that it’s probably just as well, for the health of the planet, that they’re restricted to a few historic trains and vessels—and within the pages of steampunk adventures!<\/p>\n

Steampunk HQ though—that’s not in or even near Queenstown, but resides in historic Oamaru. I posted about Steampunk Oamaru <\/a>last year, but there is something rather special about seeing the juxtaposition of the Victorian whitestone (limestone) buildings and the steampunk imagination in person.<\/p>\n

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Welcome to steampunk Oamaru<\/p><\/div>\n

Although the steampunk festival was in September (or so I was told) the town was still celebrating steampunk with an exhibition in the mainstreet Forrester Gallery, and another at the premises of the local Arts Society. Both were very good, with some fascinating steampunk creations on display.<\/p>\n

And then there’s that Steampunk HQ with the in situ “battle engine”…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>So if you’re a steampunk afficionado, a visit down this way could be part of your next holiday plan. I enjoyed my tatse of steampunk Oamaru and would be keen to return for either the steampunk or heritage week celebrations—but next year!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I posted about Queenstown, its spectacular natural beauty and historic heritage—but there was another important aspect to the trip, that began in Queenstown but was most notably encountered in coastal Oamaru. Yes, the holiday had steampunk elements. \ud83d\ude09 In Queenstown it was more steam than punk, making the return lake crossing in the coal-fired […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17443"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17460,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17443\/revisions\/17460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}