Chocolate, Penguins and Beer

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After an acceptable breakfast at the B&B we headed out to pay a visit to the local Starbucks. Two flat whites and a suitable picture later (no Dunedin mugs though), we headed over to the Cadbury’s factory for a tour. As you can imagine, a tour of a chocolate factory cannot fail to delight anyone under the age of 13 and our children were no exception (Astrid was keen too). Unfortunately, as it was a holiday, the tour was somewhat abbreviated (the factory itself not being in operation). We were able to see the largest chocolate waterfall in action (a ton of chocolate is dropped about a 100 feet inside an old silo allowing small splashes of chocolate to rain down on the gathered crowd).

After leaving the factory with a stash of chocolate (both free samples and purchases) we headed out to the Otago peninsula to see the albatross colony - the only colony reasonably accessible to tourists in the world. The birds were very impressive. The wingspan is typically about 3 metres. The colony was mostly out feeding/fishing, but we did see 4-5 young birds and one adult returning to feed its young. These birds can cover huge distances in a day and circumnavigate the southern ocean in search of food several times a year.

Before leaving the colony we were able to tour some of the costal defence structures left over from the earliest settlements. The fort on the peninsula has one of only two fully functioning “disappearing guns” (a 6 inch gun invented in the 1870s which retracts below ground after firing using the power of the recoil). Josh and I had seen a similar emplacement in Hong Kong, but the gun here was in much better shape. We also came across a number of old tunnels and rooms off the beaten track. They were obviously frequented by a younger crowd and were covered by graffiti. There was little light and Adrianne was most impressive wanting to venture into the complete darkness to seek out the unseen recesses of the tunnels.

Later in the afternoon, we toured a yellow penguin reserve. It was certainly the highlight for Astrid and me. The well laid out preserve is a series of hidden walks and hides which allows for a view of both yellow-eyed (the world’s rarest) and blue penguins (the world’s smallest). These penguins happily co-habitate with fur seals and more unusually hundreds of sheep. It was a real privilege to see these beasts up close (the penguins not the sheep).

We ended our very long day at the Speight’s brewery tour. Speight’s is one of the oldest breweries in New Zealand. It is now owned by a major conglomerate, but the tour was interesting and the beer tasting worth the modest price of admission. After a couple of beers we headed back to the B&B and went more or less straight to sleep (at least those of us who were not blogging).

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Photos

A Yellow-Eyed Penguin
One of the rarest penguins in the world in its natural habitat