Dunedin

Dunedin is famous for a few things and one is its resident population of Royal Albatrosses. On the left is a chick we watched from the hide. You would never know it but they're huge; this little (big) chick weighed in at about 10kgs. Once they take flight, the chicks spend their first 2 years at sea!! Before pairing for life. Whilst watching we saw several adults come in to feed their chicks. Man they are just gliding machines. I think about the gliders we fly back home and then you see nature evolving the perfect form. The wing span reachs 3m and the wings fold at 3 points, really cool bird.

Looking for pesky penguins

Dunedin's other famous land mark is the Speights Brewery. Now we're talking my language, I wandered blissfully around as the guide talked about, hops and barley and mash and yeast, get in lets have some tasting. Thirsty business this :)

Interesting story. In years gone by the workers were given 8 pints each per day to take home in a little wooden barrel. Wasn't till the practice stopped that the company realised the coopers had made the barrels with wooden struts half the normal thickness. The scallies were actually getting about 1o pints a pop, hell they must have been permanently pissed. There was also a bar on each floor of the brewery !

Blimey, looks like I'm throwing up :) All these coppers are still used to brew at the moment

At last we got to sample all their ales and I have to say they tasted great, like nectar!! Cheers.

A mountain of choccie at the Cadbury factory

Following day Diane got her chance with the tour of the Cadbury Factory. From crunchie bars, chocolate drops and milo bars (similar to mars bars) it all starts here; raw materials go into huge mixers and the lovely choccy comes out the other end. We had an interesting tour that ended with a 1 tonne liquid chocolate drop from a tower and loads of freebies :)