A taste of chocolate, ice, and beer

I don't know why we're still wearing our hairnets
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We started our terrifying journey across the southern island from Queenstown to Dunedin. I say terrifying because the headwinds were at 187 knots and it was raining like hurricane Katrina. Or, I should say Cyclone as we are in the southern hemisphere. We stopped at Alexandria, which would serve as a halfway point, and decided to get a hotel for the night. The information site (known as i-site) booked us a room at the AL Motel. Funny name we thought. We arrived at the hotel and observed that it was actually A1 Hotel. The next morning we drove on to Dunedin where we would spend the next three days.

Out on the Otago Peninsula
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Dunedin is a hidden gem. It definitely is not too touristy like Queenstown, and it has remarkable architecture. There are multiple Gothic style churches and chapels accompanied with other historic buildings that incorporate engaged columns and large style stonework. After milling around for a while, we decided to tour the Cadbury Chocolate Factory. Not much else to do on a rainy day.

still fun to drink as much free beer as we could in 15 minutes

Hey! Look at me, I'm peeing!
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Cadbury makes delicious chocolate. We were given a small bag to put our many samples that we would eventually collect during our tour. It was kind of like trick or treating. Also, you are able to collect additional pieces of candy if you answer the chocolate trivia questions that the tour guide asks. Being that no one would answer the questions, my bag was filled immediately. (I did hold back on asking for an additional bag) At the beginning of the tour, there is a 27.5 pound chocolate bar to feast your eyes on. Why 27.5 pounds you ask? This is to represent the length of time it takes a single consumer of different countries to eat the massive block of goodness. According to the guide, Kiwis take approximately 3.5 to 4 years to eat 27.5 pounds. Australians are much quicker, and only take about 2.5 years. And, in anti-climatic fashion, the winner is………the United States. It only takes us a year to eat ourselves through the giant sized bar. At the end of the tour, we purchased some additional candy to keep up our reputation as being the fattest nation.  One problem with the additional purchase though. I had previously found an old ten cent piece on one of our hikes that I tried to use to buy the extra candy. The clerk said in computer monotone fashion, “we don’t accept these old coins anymore, they don’t exist.” Don’t exist, I thought, well I’ll show her. The tour concluded with a giant sized chocolate waterfall, so I threw the coin into the chocolate, as it “didn’t exist.” I didn’t really, but I wanted to. The next morning I woke up, popping all the new white-headed zits that arrived overnight.

St Paul Cathedral and some other historic building (i think)
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Dunedin is near a peninsula which has Albatross, seals and threatened species of penguins. Anne and I spent our second day on the peninsula to view the wildlife. In doing so, we encountered people glaring through binoculars at the icebergs in the ocean. New Zealand has not had icebergs swim by Dunedin for 75 years and it was a real treat to witness this epic event. It even prompted Al Gore to pay a visit to continue his Global Warming crusade. Unfortunately for Al, the weather overnight was frijid-he just can't catch a break.  Maybe he should try the desert for better effect. Well, we spent the night at a campervan park and it was the coldest night yet. Anne kept grabbing me like I was freshly dried clothes out of the dryer. The next morning I sprinted to the bathroom to avoid the sub-zero chill. When I got to the bathroom, I noticed the urinal had two steps, instead of the traditional one that I am now accustomed to.  This is really odd as it places the person peeing at great heights above the others that are in the bathroom. While taking care of business, a Kiwi walked right by me and smiled as he exited the building. This made me feel a little uneasy, but I remembered that they are a nation of nice people so I blew it off.

Don't touch the copper!
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The third day we took a tour of the Speights Brewery. I was a little let down as we didn’t get to put work gloves on a conveyor-belt bottle passing by like Laverne and Shirley did, but it was still fun to drink as much free beer as we could in 15 minutes. We took off the next morning bound for Chirstchurch, but stopped at the self-proclaimed steepest street in the world, Baldwin Street. I didn’t take Goldie up the hill as it would have ended in catastrophic engine failure, but Anne and I did climb the steep terrain where we almost had catastrophic heart failure.  We walked back down, among other exhausted tourists, and climbed into Goldie. We had the windows rolled down and I heard a three year old yell to his father, who both resided on the street. “Dad, look at that ugly van!” Ashamed of what we were driving, I took off without further hesitation.

Hurry, only minutes left
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We also visited a Botanic Garden on our way out of Dunedin, but won’t bore you with the details.

bkh