As a Category One historic property, the main lodge building of Pen-y-bryn is protected by Heritage NZ, preventing us from doing anything to change the appearance of any of its rooms, or to the appearance of the interior or exterior of the building. As a result,…

The Autumn 2015 (#136) issue of Heritage, the magazine of Heritage New Zealand, has been released, and one of the main articles is about Pen-y-bryn Lodge and the work we have undertaken to restore this 1889 mansion to its current state. Work continues to enhance the…

With every new edition of the Lonely Planet guide to New Zealand in recent years we have noticed the number of pages devoted to Oamaru and the surrounding area has grown progressively larger. Gone are the days when Oamaru merited a mere two pages and…

Penguin Press will soon release a beautiful book in full colour celebrating the town of Oamaru, its characters and of course its food. This book, due out in New Zealand in the spring, features detailed stories about the people who make Oamaru so special, including…

During recent meetings in North America, we have been asked a number of times to produce a three-night itinerary for clients of New Zealand specialist travel agencies who are tired of the traditional "if it's Tuesday, this must be Rotorua" style of tourism, and who…

This year marks Pen-y-bryn's 125th birthday, and we are celebrating by offering our guests a special two-night package! Stay two nights with us anytime between 1 October 2014 and 30 April 2015 and enjoy a gourmet meal on both nights, free entrance to the Oamaru…

For the third year running, the Queen's Birthday weekend in Oamaru kicked off with a bang with the Oamaru on Fire festival. This nighttime event takes place in the historic centre of Oamaru on Harbour Street, with all sorts of fire-related performers, pyrotechnics, and other…

For the past several years we have been hearing about how we had to make time to visit Clarks Mill (for some reason, that is the correct spelling, without an apostrophe in “Clarks”), the only surviving water-powered flour mill in New Zealand. Despite all the people…