The streets of Oamaru have been transformed into 1800s California. Photo:
Hollywood has come to Oamaru, with the small South Island town transformed into 1800s California.
The Netflix series East of Eden is an adaptation of John Steinbeck's 1952 novel, and filming is now underway in Oamaru's Victorian Precinct.
Waitaki mayor Gary Kircher says Oamaru probably has the country's best selection of buildings from the era.
"It's basically been a taking over of our town by Hollywood and something that we're really pleased to see."
While he hadn't yet met any of the stars, Florence Pugh and Kieran Heinz were among them.
The town was transformed, he said.
"They're making use of the background of our heritage buildings but they're covering several streets with gravel so it takes it back in time and just all the equipment that's around everything that has to backup that from catering, through to the hundreds of extras and of course there's a lot of horses needing to be involved...
"It's all happening."
While the filming started this week, the crew have been in the area for months preparing.
"There's a reasonable amount of money being spent, it's very obvious that this is a big budget TV series."
There were a lot of big beards in the town, he said, with local men growing out their facial hair for roles as extras.
"It's been something that's been very interesting for people and unusally the production has allowed people to be very close to the filming so people taking opporunity to go and basically be an audience for them."
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