Empire Hotel Backpackers

With the Empire as your base, you can explore Oamaru, North Otago and the beautiful Waitaki Valley.

Join in regular events such as:

The Mid-Winter Mask Festival
The Wine and Food Festival
The Organic Wine and Food Festival
Oamaru Victorian Heritage Celebrations
Harvest Home Totara Estate
North Otago A&P Show

Check out the Museum, the Aquatic Centre, the Cheese Factory, Galleries (including the reknowned Forrester Art Gallery), restaurants, cafes, bars, traditional German bakery, and the famous historic precinct, a collection of blocks largely untouched since their construction in the nineteenth century.

From the Empire Hotel you can walk to...
The Penguin Colony	Graves Track at sunrise	The gardens in the afternoon	The harbour in the evening

At dusk you can watch crowds of Little Blue Penguins swim ashore and race to their nests to feed their chicks; these are the smallest penguins in the world and can be viewed in their natural habitat. The rare Yellow-eyed Penguins appear in the afternoon.

Explore the Victorian streets that provided the sets for "Kidnapped" and many other movies
Visit the fishing village of Moerāki, and the famous spherical Moerāki boulders, worth a trip for the dramatic coastal scenery and the curious geological phenomenon on the beaches.
See the ancient Elephant Rocks in the stunning Waitaki landscape near Duntroon. The rocks are a favourite destination for local climbers, and were used as the location for Aslan's Camp in the recent Film "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe".
Travel the Vanished World Trail, discover fossils and the unique geological features of the Waitaki District; then visit the Vanished World Centre at Duntroon.