Oamaru's Victorian Precinct is fast developing a reputation for combining modern technology with old-world charm, as a second smartphone app made especially for the precinct has been released.
Last month, local graphic designer Derek Golding released a Halloween app that used augmented reality technology, enabling smartphone users to see virtual ghosts in the precinct through their cellphone camera. With the Oamaru Victorian Heritage Celebrations on now, it was the perfect time to release a Steampunk-themed app, Steampunk Oamaru co-ordinator Helen Jansen said.
The app was created by Dublin-based company Haunted Planet, after company owner Mats Haahr visited a Steampunk exhibition in Oamaru, Ms Jansen said.
''His company, Haunted Planet, had just produced a vampire app and Mats was inspired to produce a time travellers' app.''
The app had been developed and located especially for Oamaru's Victorian Precinct, and would take the form of a treasure hunt in which smartphone users could follow a radar map to locate Steampunk ''time travellers''.
The app, which can be downloaded from the Haunted Planet website or by using a QR code found on flyers around Oamaru, was expected to provide ''another reason'' for people to visit the town and its Victorian Precinct, Ms Jansen said.
''The Victorian Precinct in Oamaru is becoming quite the place to be seen in if you are from another dimension.
''Last week, there were ghosts of Oamaruvians past. Now we have time travellers arriving from the alternative Victorian era.''
