Chocolate and Beer...what could be better?!?!

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Once we had settles into our hostel, which was pretty empty apart from us we wandered into town to sus out the area and called into STA for some advise (yeah right alot of help they were) and then finally, fed up of the rubbish meals we had been eating over the past few weeks, we took a trip to the supermarket to stock up for Spag Bol.

Because the hostel was so empty we had a kitchen and lounge area to ourselves which was pretty cool, not very often that happens so we made the most of it!

they are foul but make incredibly good missiles.

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Next day we were queuing outside the chocolate factory before 9am for a Cadbury's Chocolate factory tour and tasting session. Once we had adorned some splendid net headwear we made our way aroud the factory collecting free chocolate on the way. It was a pretty cool morning although we were disappointed to find out that backpackers on the tour later in the day had got more free choc than us!!! If you have tried the Cadburys Chocolate Brownie bars they you know why we were so bitter :-) !

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We had arrived during Cadburys chocolate carnival week and the highlight of this was the Jaffa rolling down the steepest street in the world, (we'll remember the name for you later) it had a 1 in 2.86 gradient. After a 45 minute walk we made it to the street along with the rest of Dunedin. Still believing they were going to try and roll jaffa cakes down the hill, we thought  we were in for a feast, however we were disappointed to discover Jaffas are basically round orange smarties which quite honestly aren't that nice!

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After the jaffa rolling, we got a bus back into the city (would have been quicker to walk!) and headed for Speight’s (pride of the south) Brewery. The tour of the brewery was very interesting – it’s amazing how fascinating the world of beer is – it becomes even more interesting when you’re given ½ hour to sample as much as you like!! We were the only Brits on the tour and as a part of ‘local tradition’, we were asked to demonstrate how to pour the perfect pint…..we certainly didn’t let the side down!

As part of the chocolate carnival week, one of the ales on offer was chocolate flavoured……not as nice as it sounds!!

An excellent day, probably the stuff some peoples’ dreams are made of?!

We took advantage of the opportunity for a lie-in the next day. We had booked a twilight tour to the Otago Peninsula to view the Yellow Eyed Penguins coming in from the sea.

There was just the 2 of us on the trip so our driver was able to give us that personal touch! Our 1^st stop was the Albatross nesting site where after a ½ hour wait we got to see an albatross coming in to feed its chicks. Their wing span is about 3m so they are a pretty awesome sight – there’s no chance of mistaking it for a sea gull!

After that, we went to the penguin reserve (on a sheep farm!). It’s a natural reserve chosen by the penguins; hides and lookouts have been put up around the farm to make viewing them easy for us and less intrusive for the penguins. Within the same reserve were some wild New Zealand fur seals. They are massive…..and pretty grumpy if you get in their way! We saw a couple of penguins that had stayed on land for the day but then we had to wait in a hide for 1 ½ hours before any started to come in from the sea. When they did eventually come in, they hid just out of our view for a few more minutes – just to mock us! By the time they wandered past our hide, it was practically dark and we were pretty cold! Needless to say, the pictures aren’t as great as the experience!

That evening we met up with someone we met in Australia during the camper van days and went to see Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Man’s Chest. It was a good evening – we even bought a packet of jaffas to kill our curiosity……..they are foul but make incredibly good missiles.