Willy Wanka and the Beer Factory

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So last night while I was walking to get groceries I was overwhelmed by the stench of chocolate*. Normally, this would be a great thing, but it was so intense I felt like chocolate was seeping from the air into my pores. Like a lot of wierd, unexplainable events, I quickly dismissed this from my head so as not to appear crazy by asking people on the streets if they smelled chocolate too.

However, arriving back at the hostel, my roommate Martin mentioned that there was a chocolate factory in town! Apparently, in addition to being a university town, Dunedin has two main industries: chocolate and beer. I think this is my kind of town! So, Martin and I decided to do the tourist thing, and booked ourselves into a tour of the chocolate factory, followed by a tour of the beer factory! If I'm not sick by the end of the night, I won't be satisfied.

A tour of the chocolate factory yielded what I had always secretly suspected: chocolate really IS made by a bunch of miniature people! I'm a bit worried about the legality, but they looked pretty happy singing and dancing while they worked. They gave us free chocolate whenever we answered questions right (and seeing how there was a bunch of little kids on the tour I ALWAYS got the question first. Suckers!) Plus, they had a shop at the end with really cheap chocolate, so by the end of tour I was feeling a bit sick. I didn't even feel like sticking my hand in the giant chocolate waterfall that apparently circulates one ton of chocolate! I think I'll make a grilled cheese sandwich before heading to the beer factory, however, because I hear that they have even more samples!

Mmmm...even better then the chocolate factory was Speight's beer factory. At the end of the tour they gave us these little glasses, and had an open bar. We HAD to try all the different types of beer, and could drink as much as we liked. I apparently wouldn't make a great bartended. When I poured my beer from the tap I got so much head, the guide held up my glass to demonstrate how NOT to pour beer, and made me drink all the head as punishment. The best was actually the apricot beer, followed by the dark malt (which to my surprise did have a chocolate aftertaste, like the guide said it would). I picked up six of each for my travels.

After drinking all that beer so quickly Martin and I didn't feel like going home, so we stopped at a little bar, with some really old guys playing jazz. The music really reminded me of chilling at my grandparents place, and I started to get a bit nostalgic; especially with 'what a wonderful world' going through my head. Thankfully, it started to get really busy, and I started to get really tired.

I'm going to have to leave the city, however, because it's getting expensive to live do this stuff. Martin suggested that I try WWOOFing (something like that). Where you stay with a host, and do some work in exchange for food and accomodation. I decided this could be a great way to spend a week or two, so guess what!? I'm heading tommorow to a farm! Yup, me on a farm, taking care of some horses while the owners are out of town. I just called up a random place and ask if they needed any help, and they told me to come down as soon as I could. Thankully, they only want someone for one week, because after that, two other poeple are comming. I'm not sure how much I remember from my horseback riding years, that was a long time ago. I'll let you know how it goes!


* On a side note: New Zealand smells REALLY good. Even the city air is sweet. It's not crisp like Fernie mountain air, which almost contains too much oxygen to handle. But it here it usually smells either like trees, dirt, sweet burning wood, or other unidentifiable, but clean things.

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Photos

Chocolate Factory Workers
As we suspected, the factory is run by thousands of little people, just like in the movie.

Chocolate Factory Workers
The workers tried to hide, but we caught them red handed in a sea of crispy bars!

Pouring beer
I got chastized for pouring beer badly...Martin was still allowed to use the taps.

Taste test
The beer on the far left is by far my favorite: apricot beer. The runner up is the dark ale right of center, which actually kinda tastes of chocolate if you use your imagination.