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Published: February 27th 2006
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Fermentation Vats
Okay maybe a swim wouldn't have been as nice as it sounds... it's not alcoholic yet, after all This is Australia Eve, the end of the New Zealand chapter of my travels. Tomorrow afternoon, I board a plane from Christchurch and fly into the cosmopolitan sprawl of Sydney. I'm a bit overwhelmed by the finality of it all, leaving my home for the past four months. It is hard to make sense of my experience and also difficult as I am not quite sure what I am going to do in Oz.
After the Catlin's Coast, Cait and I drove up from Bluff to Dunedin. We stayed at a fabulous backpackers in Milton where the hostel owner played jazz and classic rock, did our dishes for us, tended an enormous book exchange and kept a guitar in the living room. Quite lovely and right around the corner, cheap ice creams at the local dairy. Woohoo!
The next day, we moved on to Dunedin. For the first time in a while, we actually had a plan for our day. Dunedin (dun-EE-din) is home to the Cadbury Confectionary company factory as well as Speight's Ale House. Long ago, I pondered what it would be like to have a day devoted to my two favorite consumables.
Early on a
Sampling Room
That's got to be the best job ever dreary drizzly day, we stood in line waiting for the 11 am ale house tour. Surprisingly even at that hour, the tour was booked to capacity. For the next 90 minutes, we learned about the brewing process and the history of one of the oldest breweries in New Zealand. They use vintage fermentation equipment for their special brews, which involves giant wooden vats at least five meters across. Luckily for Speights, they were brewing Porter Ale that morning or else I might have been tempted to go for a dip.
We also got to have a tasting of their beers at the end of the tour (what I'd really been waiting for). In the half an hour they allot, they gave surprisingly large samples of their pilsner, porter, gold medal ale, their summer ale and a few others. I resisted the urge to binge and try all six (a sign of my maturity, I reckon) and tried the summer ale, the pilsner and the gold medal. All quite lovely. Caitlin is normally repulsed by beer but she matched me taste for taste and had three as well! She recommends the porter.
Feeling silly and slightly tipsy at 12:30
Cadbury
Maybe we're a little drunk. And maybe chocolate is just that exciting pm, we staggered our way across town to the Cadbury Factory. It felt a bit Willy Wonka-ish as they refused to allow us to take pictures or video. It all felt a bit silly when they gave us funny little hair nets. They also handed out a bag to hold all our free samples in!
The smells and sights in that place were heavenly, rich chocolate aromas. We got about 6 bars in all, saw a giant chocolate waterfall pouring out 1 ton of chocolate in a giant purple silo, tasted cocoa beans (nasty bitterness) and bought our own favorites in the factory store.
Did you know that Americans eat about 16 kilos of chocolate a year? Disgusting! But I betcha they'd eat more if they had Cadbury... the chocolate here is far superior to the types I've had back home. Creamier and more varieties. A personal favorite is the Crunchie bars, which are chocolate covered Hokie Pokie. Mmmm...
Our stomachs were a bit woozy after these so we took it easy for the rest of the day. The next day we tried to see Royal Albatrosses on Otago Peninsula but the tour was quite pricey and
very crowded. We looked at the exhibits, I managed to lose my cell phone and we had a nice lunch. Not much action, but we both were heavily weighing the idea of heading home and deep in thought most of the day.
From Dunedin, we travelled up the East Coast. It was a fine day to drive, but long. We stopped at the very interesting Moeraki Boulders. These rocks are odd because they are perfectly spherical in shape! They sit in the sand in a rather large cluster and appear to have just dropped out of the sky formed by a magic hand. It isn't well known how they are formed but they think it's a process similar to how oysters make pearls. Sediment around a lodged particle, and all that...
Now we are in Christchurch. We spent one day filming our activities collectively known as "A day in the life". Since we've been asked by countless friends what on earth we DO down here, we filmed our activites through the day including.... (drumroll)... getting a tattoo and a piercing!
Mom, please don't worry. Breathe. I didn't get the tattoo.
I did get my eyebrow pierced
though. I've wanted it done for a while, and I figured, while in New Zealand... uh, do as the kiwis do? It was pretty much painless and I've got a bar in it at the moment (safer to have while it heals) and hopefully in a few weeks I'll replace it with a hoop. It's pretty neat and it's my first piercing. We made sure to get a full on excrutiating video, reality TV at its best.
Also Cait got her Maori symbol on her wrist. We also went to the beautiful Botanical Gardens and the Arts Center. As it's late summer here, there were also a bunch of festivals and fairs going on in the downtown. A Chinese lantern festival right on the river was a beautiful place to walk about in the fading evening and even better to get really cheap dumplings.
We are staying with Stuey and Barbara, a super nice Kiwi couple that Caitlin met on the Stewart Island ferry and talked to for no more than half an hour. It sounds sketchy I know, but that's just how it rolls in New Zealand. Everyone is so warm, friendly and open. We're certainly appreciative
Sunset at All Day Bay Backpackers
I'll miss this for sure, amazing clouds, sunrises and sunsets. of a free bed, food and a home to be in while we pack and try to sell our car.
Speaking of, it's time to go meet with some prospective buyers so I'll sign off here. Next entry will be from Australia no doubt. If anyone's got advice on what to do out there, please give me a shout.
meesh 😊
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