The last time I posted, we had just left Christchurch.
Sad thing too because Sumner's Beach was one of the BEST times that I've had in New Zealand. Great company, great scenery, and great times. When you rate that on a scale with everything else that I did, that means a lot.
Anyway, here we go:
Spring Break, Part 3: Steep Streets and Beer.
We arrived in Dunedin right before noon and immediately caught a shuttle to our hostel. It was one of those big chain hostels (ABC Hostel or something? Can't remember anymore), so the deals were great and the services were reliable.
Since a room typically held four to six people, we were lucky in that there were four of us. That meant we got a room all to ourselves.
Once we were all settled in, we grabbed instructions for a walking tour of Dunedin and showed ourselves around. Our goals were simple enough: Eat, meet one of Brad's (the guy with the crazy hair) friend at the local college, and climb the steepest street on the planet.
Unfortunately, Tolkien decided to send some ogres our way. More on that later....
So we decided to follow the directions (our Treasure Map) to see the major sites of Dunedin. Unfortunately, it didn't exactly take us along the scenic route. From our hostel to some random lonely roads, we passed by what once must have been a magnificent courthouse. Now, though, it had been remodeled into a strip club. The lack of stores and tourist-y areas along these roads at least provided us with a random Chinese fastfood takeout place.
We were starving (our last meal was at 7ish am - a granola bar for me, back at Christchurch). We swallowed entire rabbits whole, then continued with our tour. Unfortunately, we didn't take too many pictures of this walk. It wasn't a very pretty city. If I had to compare it with any other city I know, I'd call it Philadelphia.
The nice parts, I admit, were very nice though. Here are pictures from our walking tour:
See? Philly.
The first monument-type thing we saw:
More...
A prison. And yeah, there are still inmates there. Though, honestly, I can't imagine what kind of crimes are prominent in New Zealand. Maybe it's illegal for hobbits to shave? (*coughs... apologizes to any Kiwi readers.*)
The Dunedin Railway Station - easily one of the best sites in Dunedin. Here are some pictures of it, but no worries. We'll be back here again when we hop on the train to Queenstown.
And here we go... Imagine Willy Wonka. Imagine his chocolate factory. And now, take a good look at the Cadbury Chocolate Factory. You see that big purple tower? You know what's inside? It's a real chocolate waterfall! (We'll enter the factory tomorrow... but, unfortunately, they wouldn't let us take pictures. Something about people trying to steal Mr Wonka's secrets.)
Here's an old fire station and an antique firetruck.
Then here's the University of Otago, with its library, dining area, the quaint campus feel (quads, buildings, and students playing rugby... instead of frisbee), and student housing. Very much like Amherst except for, you know, those MOUNTAINS IN THE BACKGROUND! Oh, and for these students, student housing actually means student housing. I mean - seriously, look. They have houses.
Anyway, we were there for two reasons. One: Kate really wanted to see the college. And two: Brad met up with a friend and they briefly chatted... then he looked at me, grinned, and pressed the "Do Magic" button that's supposedly a part of me. It was all in good fun, though.
After that, we were finally on our way to the World's Steepest Street.
And this is when Tolkien throws some obstacles our way. My stomach is in PAIN all of a sudden. My sister's nose is constantly running (she's had a cold for most of this trip), and we were in the middle of a residential area with no chemists (aka Kiwi word for pharmacists) around. We managed to find a dairy (think Seven Eleven). It has drugs, but it doesn't have any cold medicine, and it doesn't have any pain killers.
But oh no. We've come all this way. There's no way we're missing the World's Steepest Street, even if it means keeling over and throwing up once I reach the top.
First off - the impossibly long walk.
On our way, we ran across some interesting signs. Oh yes. The Church of St Martins apparently transformed into the Church of Satin.
And.. here we go. The world's steepest street!
Oh wait. No. Believe it or not... that was NOT the World's Steepest Street. There were a dozen of those - false imitations - before we actually found the real World's Steepest Street. It's called Baldwin St, and there's a ferocious feline guarding it. See?
Time for the climb to the top. You can see me, curled over in pain, as I force myself to make the dangerous upwards hike.
The view from the top:
(Pained expression as I walk back down...)
Here's a random bit of info. Every year, there's a race up and down this street. It's called the Baldwin St Gutbuster. More details about this insanely painful (and, I think, unnecessarily tiring) event are on that picture of a sign somewhere above.
We were done, and we would make it back just in time for our tour of Speight's Beer Factory. On the way back, we finally found a supermarket. My sister and I stopped in for some meds (which helped a great deal). I got her some Strepsils... she didn't really need them, but I've started eating them like lollies (aka candy) since my last cold. They're delicious, by the way, and highly addictive cough drops.
After that adventure, we walked (WAAAY too much walking in this little island country) to Speight's Brewery. The tour consisted of a history of beer, a history of Speight's Brewery, the beer-making process, and....
*drum rolls*
As much free beer as you can drink for an hour. It was only a $15 NZD tour... and, for most people, it was well worth it. It was completely wasted on me... but hey - I tasted some of the supposedly special taps. If you like to drink and you're ever in Dunedin, this is the place to go.
And here's Mr Speight himself!
Ah... free beer.
And oh! No... this isn't a random beer spout sticking out of the factory. The beer factory is directly over this resevoir of amazingly fresh water. Its quality is supposed to be better than the town's tap, so people come here throughout the day just to fill up jars upon jars of water.
--
Anyway, in summary: Day five of my mid-semester break was spent wandering the streets of Dunedin with a complicated treasure map, receiving advice from the scholars of Otago University, climbing great obstacles, and, finally, relaxing in the ancient secrets of beer.
No worries. No one got too drunk. My sober state of mind could have easily made me the designated walker, but my lack of directional sense (I still have no idea how Brad got us to the beer factory without a map) would have kept us in Dunedin for weeks. That meant other people had to watch themselves... and, fortunately, we made our way safely back to our hostel.
I don't remember what dinner that night was, but we had a great snack - leftover chocolate cake from the dinner that we had made for our Christchurch hosts.
Overall, Dunedin was a decent bit of fun, loads of pain, and a midway point on our way to Queenstown. Stay tuned for our next chapter: Part 4 - Chocolate and Trains.
And, of course, a thank you to Brad, Kate, and Florence for their wonderful pictures.
