Edinburgh of the South

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We arrived in Dunedin around 3pm, we must have floored it as it's supposed to be a 7 hour journey. No one we have met has come to or has any plans to go to Dunedin. It's a pretty big city and as far as I can tell it's famous for rugby and beer. The 'Otago Highlanders' play here at the infamous 'House of Pain' which is meant to be brutal on match days. The Speights brewery here is the oldest in the land, and as I've become quite partial to a pint of Speights during our trip here I suggested to Fiona that we go to a brewery tour later, she agrees tentatively!

We found our hostel fairly easily, actually by mistake. It's fair to say it has seen many better days and could do with a good lick of paint and some glass in the window pains wouldn't go amiss either. Anyway our tiny room is clean so at least that's something. The facilities here aren't great and it's the first time we've had to use mixed sex toilets and showers, Fiona's not keen.

After a quick look at the street map we realised that all the street names are the same as Edinburgh's and in the same order too (Princess St, Goerge St, Frederick St etc) so we should be able to find our way around ok. They have areas named Corstorphine, Morningside, Marchmount, Portobello, Musselborough, the only thing missing is the castle! No need for the map, we feel like i've been here before.

We wandered around the streets and fairly quickly found a pub called the 'Flying Scotsman', a trendy place serving food and showing the football, we were sold! Unfortunately it didn't sell haggis but the barmaid did give us the number for the local brewery, one quick call later and we were on a brewery tour with tasting opportunities in only one hour, just enough time to neck a couple of pints of the local brew, just to get the palate right for tasting of course.

The tour was pretty rushed but interesting and the beer was great, Speights rule, 6 beers and we got to taste them all, one of us managed to try all of them twice but I'll leave you guessing as to who ....

After the tasting it was agreed that I was a Speights Distinction drinker and Fiona's tipple was the Speights Pale Ale, off to the pub to verify our decisions.

Dunedin is a real party town, it has a large uni/college and is a great night out, we were only here for one night and barely scratched the surface. I can see why not a lot of people make the effort to come so far south but I can also see the potential that makes me think more should, if for nothing else but the beer and the craic.

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Photos

Andrew
enjoying a pint of Distinction

The Brewfloor
how it's all made

Beer holder things
can't remember what these are called