Pen-y-bryn Lodge

28/08/2026

Today is the day when the second batch of our private-label whisky from The New Zealand Whisky Collection is ready to be bottled after nearly four years in the barrel. We filled the barrel with new spirit on 23 November 2022 and now, 45 months later, it's ready! We opted to bottle it at 48% ABV (similar to the first batch, which we bottled at 47.5%). We think you're going to love it!

19/08/2026

Here's a little preview of the upcoming Netflix East of Eden series, filmed in and around Oamaru last summer and coming to your screens from 1 October.

19/08/2026

Early in 2025 the central area of Oamaru was turned into Salinas, California, circa 1920s for Netflix's production of their mini-series based on Steinbeck's East of Eden. Today they announced the long-awaited release date of the series, which Netflix subscribers will be able to watch starting on 1 October. I know we'll be watching--hope you will, too!

Here’s your first look at Pugh, Christopher Abbott, and Mike Faist in the new series, adapted by Zoe Kazan.

18/08/2026

Spring settles gently over Ōamaru — the gardens come into blossom, the days stretch longer and warmer, and the Waitaki shakes off the winter chill. There's no more graceful place to take it in than Pen-y-bryn Lodge, the largest wooden single-storey dwelling in Australasia and a grand Victorian home in every detail.

Wander the heritage precinct, watch the little blue penguins come ashore at dusk, trace the Waitaki Valley's wineries and the Moeraki Boulders — then return to a fireside dram and perhaps a private fine-dining dinner by candlelight.

Spring stays are 15% off when you book direct with us (September–November). Send us a message, or book your escape here: bit.ly/pybspring2026

22/07/2026

Each image is about two hours of exposure through my imaging telescope — and while that one stays busy with the camera attached, guests are welcome to something even better for looking: on clear nights we set up our 10-inch Dobsonian, which gathers half again as much light and turns these clusters into swarms of stars you can see with your own eye. The southern sky is one of the Waitaki's quiet treasures — on a moonless night here, you can see the Milky Way from horizon to horizon.Midwinter is prime season for stargazing here in Oamaru — the nights are long and properly dark — and this past week of clear skies let me point the telescope at four of my favourite star clusters. All were captured over the last few nights, right here in the Waitaki's dark skies.

The big misty ball is Omega Centauri, the largest star cluster in the entire sky: around ten million stars, and it passes almost directly overhead here. Astronomers believe it's actually the surviving heart of a small galaxy our Milky Way swallowed long ago. The two golden swarms are M22 and M4 — M4 is the closest cluster of its kind to Earth, and is home to a planet nearly 13 billion years old, one of the oldest known. And the sparkly one is the Jewel Box, a young cluster in the Southern Cross — blue-white diamonds with a single ruby-orange star set in the middle.

17/07/2026

Kaitiakitanga — the world's most beautiful word 🌿

We were delighted to learn that te reo Māori has just received wonderful international recognition: an international jury of linguists, writers and cultural experts, convened by language-learning app Babbel, has named Kaitiakitanga the most beautiful word in the world — chosen from over 220 words across 75 languages.
Kaitiakitanga speaks of guardianship: the responsibility to care for and protect the natural world, not for ourselves, but for the generations who follow.
It's a concept close to our hearts here at Pen-y-bryn Lodge. From tending our heritage gardens and century-old trees, to supporting the protection of the little blue penguins that call Oamaru home, we try to be good kaitiaki of this special corner of Aotearoa — caring for a place that was here long before us, and will remain long after.
Ka mau te wehi — how fitting that of all the world's words, this is the one. 💙

A Māori word describing the responsibility to care for the natural world has been named the world's most beautiful word by language-learning platform Babbel.

16/07/2026

In Oamaru we don't get snow or even much in the way of frosts, but the same cannot be said for the Mackenzie Country a 90-minute drive away. Earlier this week the conditions up there seemed promising for a good hoarfrost to appear, so I headed up that way to shoot some photos. I was not disappointed!

08/07/2026

This bubble of glowing gas in the constellation Carina was sculpted by the fierce radiation of the young star cluster you can see blazing at its heart. The red shell surrounding it is hydrogen gas that has been ionised — stripped of its electrons — by that same radiation.

It's part of the vast Carina star-forming complex, one of the most active regions of star birth in our galaxy, and it sits high in our summer sky. Named after the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral, the first Latin American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, who was born near a region of similar southern skies.

Photographed from our garden at Pen-y-bryn Lodge, Oamaru.

06/07/2026

The large blue-green nebula on the right is the Lagoon Nebula — one of only two emission nebulae visible to the naked eye from the southern hemisphere. The smaller orange object at lower left is the Trifid Nebula, which we posted about recently. They sit close together in Sagittarius and fit in the same wide-field image.

Both are active star-forming regions — clouds of gas and dust where new stars are being born right now. The Lagoon is around 4,000 light-years away and contains a young star cluster at its glowing heart.

On a clear winter evening from Pen-y-bryn these two nebulae are well placed in the northern sky. Through our 10-inch telescope the Lagoon shows remarkable structure and the Trifid's three-lobed division is clearly visible.

Photographed from our garden in Oamaru.

01/07/2026

More exciting gustatory news to share today!

🥃 From 3 July, our friends at The New Zealand Whisky Collection open the doors to their brand-new tasting room at 4 Wansbeck Street, Oamaru (across the road from the big building with "WHISKY" written across the façade, and more or less opposite Scotts Brewing Co).

We've long been proud supporters of theirs — so proud, in fact, that we had them fill a barrel with their spirit to create a private-label whisky just for Pen-y-bryn guests. Two batches, made exclusively for us, poured by the fire for those who stay.
Come taste it here, then head into town to see their new space for yourself, taste their whiskies and maybe get some bottles to take home or give as gifts. Two more great reasons to visit Oamaru this winter.