on the move: New Zealand

NEW ZEALAND

Dunedin
17 -19 Nov 2012

I thought I would have a break from Queenstown and explore the city of Dunedin, the second largest city in the south island. It based on the city of Edinburgh and is proud of its Scottish heritage. It is also home to Speights brewery and Cadburys chocolate factory, as well as being a university city and popular with tourists.

$60 return on intercity. $29/night at a hostel. And $41 for a tour of BOTH Speights and Cadburys factories, BARGAIN!

below: my home for 2 nights

below: 'dexter' the hostel cat

below: Dunedin city centre. This was the 'Octagon' where there were a few historical buildings, shops, cafes, restaurants, cafes, bars and grass to sit and chlil..

below: Baldwin Street, the steepest residential street in the world!

below: a University of Otago building

below: Speights factory. It is going through some building work and expansion due to the increase in output as a result of the earthquake in Christchurch two years ago.

below: inside the factory

below: the sampling room. 30 mins to taste the 6 beers and 1 cider as much as you want. 3 - 2 - 1 - GO! Afterwards a group of kiwi ladies on a hen night asked if I wanted to join them at the Speights Ale House down the road. It was a good night out with good food, good company and live music. Lucky me! Unfortunately at 3am I forgot the pin to my hostel front door, had to wait 2 hours to be let in, got horrendous leg cramp during the night and woke up with the hostel cat sleeping on my pillow!

below: time to take it easy the next day... A view of Dunedin from the lookout point.

below: I managed to get a trip on this old british bus that used to run in my home county of Norfolk before being exported to NZ. I wanted to get on a public tour but the bus was on a private charter, luckily the driver had a word and I managed to get on as long as I sat downstairs and behaved myself! For the record this was an Eastern Counties Bristol VR - OPW183P.

below: back in the hotseat!

below: NORWICH!

below: Dunedin rail station

below: Cadbury factory. No chocolate waterfalls or oompa lumpas but good tour of the production lines, informative history of the place and generous samples at the end.