Hey y’all,
Today was an early morning brekky at the hotel. A continental
breakfast was served at your own pace. We all jumped onto the bus to head to
our next destination. The view consisted of rolling hills, three different
lakes, and millions of sheep.
Our first picture stop was at the Benmore Dam. It was built
in the 1960s out of 28 million tons of land. Lake Benmore is the largest
manmade lake in New Zealand. It is a deep blue in color. The machinery to
transfer the power to the North Island cost $6 million dollars.
The next picture stop was in Oamaru. It is a quaint little
Victorian era town. Fun fact: it is the home of Steam Punk New Zealand. Steam
punk is an interesting movement. It believes in recycling technology of today
and recreating the old. The history I would recommend doing a quick Google
search to learn more about. Whilst the bus filling up with petrol, the group
meandered around town. The main steam punk art I visited was a train that
actually blew steam out. Roughly, 40 or so Hollywood movies have been filmed in
this town. I can understand this due to the landscape and building structures.
The lunch stop was in a tourist location called Moeraki
boulders. The attraction is perfectly circular rocks that are on the beach. The
beaches thus far in New Zealand are completely different beaches to that of
Australia. This beach was more hard packed, orange, and ugly. 130 kids ordered
lunch all at once and some lunches were forgotten to be made. Of course, mine
was forgotten so I missed out on fish and chips. Dang it.
Dunedin was our final destination on the bus today. The
first stop was Baldwin Street. It’s claim to fame is that it holds the Guinness
world record for steepest street. At the steepest point, the gradient is 1 in
2.86. The road is 161.2m long and climbs a vertical of 47.22m. I did climb the
entire thing in flip-flops. Houses are straight but the fences follow the
vertical.
After a quick refresh, the tour headed by foot to the
Cadbury Factory. Chocolate was handed
out left right and center. My stomach actually hurts from the sheer amount of
chocolate I ate. I didn’t know that certain Cadbury chocolate types are only
sold in New Zealand. The sugar comes from Queensland, Australia, the milk comes
from Dunedin, New Zealand, and the actual cocoa beans are from Malaysia, Ghana,
and the Congo. All Cadbury chocolate is made in the Southern hemisphere and then
shipped around the world. The beans are husked and roasted in Singapore then
shipped to New Zealand. Milk chocolate and white chocolate are made in New
Zealand but the dark chocolate brands are made in Tasmania.
The chocolate factory was preceded by a tour of the Speight's Brewery. It is the dominating beer in New Zealand. Not a huge fan of beer so I didn't really pay attention. Dinner was at the Ale House attached to the Brewery. I had a chicken salad and ale house bread.
Tomorrow we make our way to Queenstown. I am bungy jumping off the original bridge tomorrow morning.
AFN
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