Francesca and Henk-Jan's Backpacking Trip!
Saturday, August 29, 2009
IN JAIL!!
Inmates JA8941:
Francesca DelGuidice and Henk-Jan Boerma were arrested this past Friday, August 28th, 2009 at approximately 5:30 pm. They were taken into custody after being accused by the police of indecent exposure and brought to Addington Jail, just on the outskirts of Christchurch, New Zealand. Currently not released on bail, the couple awaits a chance to make phone calls home to their parents to inform them of the ‘incident’ and upcoming trial.
Francesca DelGuidice and Henk-Jan Boerma were arrested this past Friday, August 28th, 2009 at approximately 5:30 pm. They were taken into custody after being accused by the police of indecent exposure and brought to Addington Jail, just on the outskirts of Christchurch, New Zealand. Currently not released on bail, the couple awaits a chance to make phone calls home to their parents to inform them of the ‘incident’ and upcoming trial.
Queenstown revisited
The day after our return to Queenstown (named so by the pioneers because they thought the town was fit for a Queen) was time for a bit of a rest. We slept in for some mandatory sleep, after all the antics in Dunedin. After waking up slowly and eating a bite we headed for town. I had been wanting to see Quentin Tarantino's new movie 'Inglorious Basterds' and Francesca was fine with that too... As we walked up to the Reading Cinema to check the starting time I saw it started at 14:15PM. Francesca asked me to check the time, and it was 14:16PM on the watch. Must have been faith! We proceeded to the counter, bought two tickets and sat down for some gore. The movie turned out to be less bloody than I expected, but Tarantino delivered another masterpiece for sure! Go see it (if you like his other movies anyway...)!
Our next move in Queenstown was one to Francesca's liking. Cheap, but very delicious Indian from a place called the Bombay Palace. Francesca ended up with her usual choice of butter chicken; I opted for the beef korma. We ate garlic and cheese naan, and peshwari naan as a side. Francesca had wanted me to see 'Twins' with Ahhhnold and Danny DeVito. Yeahh... Interesting movie! Funny to copy Ahhhnold's accent and make Francesca hate me. A good way to finish a lazy day!
The following day was much more active! I had wanted to go luging (tobogganing) since we first got into Queenstown, and today was going to be the day. It was drizzling a little bit when we left the hostel, but the sun was shining as well, and the tracks were opened, so we went for it. To get up to the luge, we had to take a Gondola up the mountain. It took about 5 minutes and a very steep climb to get to a little cafe and a view of one of the three bungees in Queenstown: the Ledge. The ledge is different from the other two jumps, because you get to jump any way you want. You can run off, dive off, bike off, do flips and twists, whatever you can come up with. Pretty neat! We didn't spend our money on this thrill-activity though...
No, we went up with a little ski-lift to the starting point of the luge. After grabbing our helmets we had to go down the mandatory 'Scenic Track' first. Francesca was scared of the speed, and I stayed with her to make sure she didn't crash. Unfortunately, the first corner proved too tight for her and I had to get out of my luge to get her going again. The false start didn't prove to be a recipe for the rest of the day, as she improved a lot in that run already! I got her to let go of the break a lot more, so she got to speed up way more! With a slightly wet track that made for great fun!
Our second run was on the 'Advanced Track,' a slightly more difficult track, but nothing too scary. Francesca wanted to scout it first, so we took it easy again, with some speed bumps here and there causing the occasional scream from my female companion. As we went through our runs we went faster and faster! We knew there was a camera at the end of the track, so we posed as we approached the finish line, and got some great pictures that way. The last run was great fun, and I'm sure we could've gone on for quite some time longer because Francesca really got into it!
Unfortunately, the weather got worse after our last run, so we went to the cafe where Francesca enjoyed an apple cinnamon doughnut. This marked the end of our stay up in the mountains, as we jumped back in the Gondola and headed back down to the center of town. One of the girls on the bus down to Bluff had told us about a steak-night (1 pound/half a kg of steak for $15 NZD!!!), but we had forgotten the whereabouts of said steaks... We had asked around and nobody seemed to know what we were talking about. Our final hope was one of the locals behind the desk at the Info&Track where we had booked our luging. And huzzah! He knew we had to go to Monty's, a little bar hidden away in one of the less popular streets of town.
We got there around 18:00PM, pretty hungry and very ready for a huge steak. We placed our order of the famous steak, some garlic bread and vegetables and anticipated the arrival of our food feast. Wow, the steak was huge indeed! Francesca made herself some steak sandwiches with the garlic bread, but I just attacked the steak head-on. So good! The mashed potatoes with a mushroom sauce certainly helped spice things up. The meal definitely lived up to our expectations, and more than full we headed back to the hostel.
This morning had us getting up relatively early, because we had to switch rooms. It proved to be a good thing because the weather was great. Francesca wanted to see the Gardens, and we headed there first. I spotted a strange-looking signpost in the distance and walked over. Apparently the Gardens are used for frisbee golf!
Francesca and I had never heard of this sport before, but after a little practice we decided to give it a go! We grabbed one of the free frisbees laying around and started on the first 'hole.' A hole in this case is more like a large metal basket. It was great to see the park as well as do something a little bit sporty (more so for me as I had to run for the frisbees).
Due to the wind we did pretty badly, only scoring par once... It didn't matter though, as we had great fun doing it! Took us a good two hours to go all the way around, getting some welcomed sun in the process. The walk was followed by an iced chocolate (basically chocolate milk with icecubes and vanilla icecream), which tasted very good! Francesca drank most of it before I got to try it... :(
The day ended quietly with a little dinner for two, prepared by yours truly. We crawled in bed nice and early, because the bus would take us from Queenstown to Christchurch the following morning. As the alarm rudely awoke us the next morning around 07:00AM we knew that we had a really long drive ahead of us.
When the Stray bus finally arrived we feared not even being able to sit together, as the bus was crowded. However, they had left the last row unused, and Francesca and I ended up with the best seats in the house! Francesca laid down for a little more sleep as the dawn turned to day, and drizzle changed into sunshine.
Our first stop of the morning was a barren strip of land that had suffered from a hurricane a few years before. The local farmer that owned the land and lost most of his buildings due to the force of nature had gathered the scraps and built a giant ‘watchman’ that now looks over the land in search of new hurricanes.
Midday saw us pulling up in a town called Lake Tekapo. As the name suggests, the place is mainly famous for its lake. This particular lake is too cold for plants to grow in, and that is why the water looks emerald-green, not blue. We also walked into a little church where I took an artistic photo of a cross, combined with beautiful scenery. The moment of silence was followed by a walk to a statue of a famous sheepdog. The Collie Dog, as the legend goes, was able to follow commands given to it four hours before.
Unfortunately, stretching our legs ended and Francesca and I got back on the bus for some lunch. I’ve been making Francesca the most interesting sandwiches, with whatever food we have in our food bags. This has resulted in cheese, salami and jelly or peanut butter sandwiches and a few other unlikely combinations. With some chips and a sip of diet coke or milk, lunch is served.
Around two we stopped in another town, called Geraldine. Geraldine is apparently famous for the biggest sweater in the world, and a mosaic made out of the teeth of saws. We didn’t get to see much of either, since the shop was closed… So much for tourism in Geraldine! Fortunately, we did find a nice fish and chips shop where Francesca picked out two pieces of Elephant fish and a side of kumara chips, which went down very well. I also picked up a healthy smoothie from a place around the corner.
The last two hours of hour drive went by pretty quickly, and around 16:00PM we reached the outskirts of Christchurch. Our hostel was slightly outside the city center, so the driver dropped off the majority of the bus first, before taking us to our final destination. Francesca will tell you all about that!
Our next move in Queenstown was one to Francesca's liking. Cheap, but very delicious Indian from a place called the Bombay Palace. Francesca ended up with her usual choice of butter chicken; I opted for the beef korma. We ate garlic and cheese naan, and peshwari naan as a side. Francesca had wanted me to see 'Twins' with Ahhhnold and Danny DeVito. Yeahh... Interesting movie! Funny to copy Ahhhnold's accent and make Francesca hate me. A good way to finish a lazy day!
The following day was much more active! I had wanted to go luging (tobogganing) since we first got into Queenstown, and today was going to be the day. It was drizzling a little bit when we left the hostel, but the sun was shining as well, and the tracks were opened, so we went for it. To get up to the luge, we had to take a Gondola up the mountain. It took about 5 minutes and a very steep climb to get to a little cafe and a view of one of the three bungees in Queenstown: the Ledge. The ledge is different from the other two jumps, because you get to jump any way you want. You can run off, dive off, bike off, do flips and twists, whatever you can come up with. Pretty neat! We didn't spend our money on this thrill-activity though...
No, we went up with a little ski-lift to the starting point of the luge. After grabbing our helmets we had to go down the mandatory 'Scenic Track' first. Francesca was scared of the speed, and I stayed with her to make sure she didn't crash. Unfortunately, the first corner proved too tight for her and I had to get out of my luge to get her going again. The false start didn't prove to be a recipe for the rest of the day, as she improved a lot in that run already! I got her to let go of the break a lot more, so she got to speed up way more! With a slightly wet track that made for great fun!
Our second run was on the 'Advanced Track,' a slightly more difficult track, but nothing too scary. Francesca wanted to scout it first, so we took it easy again, with some speed bumps here and there causing the occasional scream from my female companion. As we went through our runs we went faster and faster! We knew there was a camera at the end of the track, so we posed as we approached the finish line, and got some great pictures that way. The last run was great fun, and I'm sure we could've gone on for quite some time longer because Francesca really got into it!
Unfortunately, the weather got worse after our last run, so we went to the cafe where Francesca enjoyed an apple cinnamon doughnut. This marked the end of our stay up in the mountains, as we jumped back in the Gondola and headed back down to the center of town. One of the girls on the bus down to Bluff had told us about a steak-night (1 pound/half a kg of steak for $15 NZD!!!), but we had forgotten the whereabouts of said steaks... We had asked around and nobody seemed to know what we were talking about. Our final hope was one of the locals behind the desk at the Info&Track where we had booked our luging. And huzzah! He knew we had to go to Monty's, a little bar hidden away in one of the less popular streets of town.
We got there around 18:00PM, pretty hungry and very ready for a huge steak. We placed our order of the famous steak, some garlic bread and vegetables and anticipated the arrival of our food feast. Wow, the steak was huge indeed! Francesca made herself some steak sandwiches with the garlic bread, but I just attacked the steak head-on. So good! The mashed potatoes with a mushroom sauce certainly helped spice things up. The meal definitely lived up to our expectations, and more than full we headed back to the hostel.
This morning had us getting up relatively early, because we had to switch rooms. It proved to be a good thing because the weather was great. Francesca wanted to see the Gardens, and we headed there first. I spotted a strange-looking signpost in the distance and walked over. Apparently the Gardens are used for frisbee golf!
Francesca and I had never heard of this sport before, but after a little practice we decided to give it a go! We grabbed one of the free frisbees laying around and started on the first 'hole.' A hole in this case is more like a large metal basket. It was great to see the park as well as do something a little bit sporty (more so for me as I had to run for the frisbees).
Due to the wind we did pretty badly, only scoring par once... It didn't matter though, as we had great fun doing it! Took us a good two hours to go all the way around, getting some welcomed sun in the process. The walk was followed by an iced chocolate (basically chocolate milk with icecubes and vanilla icecream), which tasted very good! Francesca drank most of it before I got to try it... :(
The day ended quietly with a little dinner for two, prepared by yours truly. We crawled in bed nice and early, because the bus would take us from Queenstown to Christchurch the following morning. As the alarm rudely awoke us the next morning around 07:00AM we knew that we had a really long drive ahead of us.
When the Stray bus finally arrived we feared not even being able to sit together, as the bus was crowded. However, they had left the last row unused, and Francesca and I ended up with the best seats in the house! Francesca laid down for a little more sleep as the dawn turned to day, and drizzle changed into sunshine.
Our first stop of the morning was a barren strip of land that had suffered from a hurricane a few years before. The local farmer that owned the land and lost most of his buildings due to the force of nature had gathered the scraps and built a giant ‘watchman’ that now looks over the land in search of new hurricanes.
Midday saw us pulling up in a town called Lake Tekapo. As the name suggests, the place is mainly famous for its lake. This particular lake is too cold for plants to grow in, and that is why the water looks emerald-green, not blue. We also walked into a little church where I took an artistic photo of a cross, combined with beautiful scenery. The moment of silence was followed by a walk to a statue of a famous sheepdog. The Collie Dog, as the legend goes, was able to follow commands given to it four hours before.
Unfortunately, stretching our legs ended and Francesca and I got back on the bus for some lunch. I’ve been making Francesca the most interesting sandwiches, with whatever food we have in our food bags. This has resulted in cheese, salami and jelly or peanut butter sandwiches and a few other unlikely combinations. With some chips and a sip of diet coke or milk, lunch is served.
Around two we stopped in another town, called Geraldine. Geraldine is apparently famous for the biggest sweater in the world, and a mosaic made out of the teeth of saws. We didn’t get to see much of either, since the shop was closed… So much for tourism in Geraldine! Fortunately, we did find a nice fish and chips shop where Francesca picked out two pieces of Elephant fish and a side of kumara chips, which went down very well. I also picked up a healthy smoothie from a place around the corner.
The last two hours of hour drive went by pretty quickly, and around 16:00PM we reached the outskirts of Christchurch. Our hostel was slightly outside the city center, so the driver dropped off the majority of the bus first, before taking us to our final destination. Francesca will tell you all about that!
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Southern Man...
After Stewart Island, we were ready for generous helpings of two things: chocolate and beer! But before we could get to Dunedin to sample these, we had to spend a couple of nights in Invercargill at the Tuatara Backpackers Lodge. Which wasn't a bad idea! After getting off the ferry in Bluff, we got on the Stray Bus for our shortest trip yet! After 30 minutes of driving, we were dropped off in Invercargill, and checked into our spacious room. It was even complete with an awesome view! Of 'Hell's Pizza' that is! Henk and I booked our bus tickets to Dunedin and the tours we had planned, and decided to grab some pizza after a quick walk around town.
Waaaay back in Taupo, when I had a craving for pizza, Henk and I simply ordered something from Pizza Hut and went on our way. Our hostel reception had mentioned Hell's Pizza , but we hadn't really considered it. Boy, am I glad we checked it out this time! This New Zealand national pizza chain has fantastic pizza -- with a sinister theme to boot. The store itself played rock music, had arcade games such as 'House of the Dead,' and even a fireplace and flat-screen TV. The cash registers were even tiny tombstones!
After looking at their extensive menu, with pizzas entitled 'Lust,' 'Sloth,' and 'Envy,' etc. after the 7 Deadly Sins, Henk and I decided on getting two pizzas: a 'mini' sized Greed pizza (double ham, double pineapple, and double cheese) and a larger sized Gluttony pizza (pineapple, mushrooms, bacon, black pepper, capsicum, ham, salami, tomatoes, onions, and garlic) -- plus garlic bread and Kumara fries. Yes, we splurged a little that night! We brought the pizza into our hostel's empty TV lounge and just chilled. :)
The next morning was a late start. We attempted to sleep in, since we hadn't been getting much rest lately, but the painters outside our room had other plans. After I asked them to turn down the music, we took a nice, long shower. Finally, around 4:00 pm, we went to the small Southland Museum & Art Gallery. The highlights were seeing some live Tuataras: the only survivor of a large group of reptiles that roamed the earth at the same time as dinosaurs -- plus they breathe only once per hour! We also saw the skeletons of Moas: huge ancient (now extinct) New Zealand birds around the height of Big Bird from Sesame Street! Crazy to imagine they were once alive!! o.o
That night, we planned on grabbing dinner from the supermarket, because we spotted a good deal the night before: a hot roast chicken, potato salad, coleslaw, and a six-pack of dinner rolls for $20 NZD. But before we could pick up our meal to take it back to the TV lounge again, we stopped for a quick drink at this awesome zoo-animal themed cafe I had read about in our Lonely Planet guidebook. Pretty neat!
The next morning around 10:30 am, we took the bus from Invercargill to Dunedin, getting ready for a looong day. Our plan was to arrive in Dunedin around 2:00 pm, check into our hotel across from a church. The large unique hostel was called Hogwartz -- and happened to be a former Catholic bishop's residence -- complete with some awesome rooms! We dropped our stuff in the room and proceeded to 'the Octagon' for our tours.
First was a tour at 3:00 pm of the famous Cadbury chocolate factory. Entering those purple-themed walls filled with chocolate was the perfect experience for me! Henk and I first went through the educational 'History of Chocolate/History of Cadbury' interactive displays, then we were given hairnets and mini plastic bags which included a Cadbury chocolate and marshmallow fish. We enjoyed one of the fish while watching an introductory video to Cadbury. Then for the sad part: we had to lock up all our cameras and cell phones. Photography of the secret Cadbury methods is strictly prohibited! But at least we got to see it. :)
Our journey into the factory was a decent into an increasingly chocolate atmosphere. We learned that: the majority of the Mesoamerican peoples made chocolate beverages, including the Aztecs and the Maya, who made it into a beverage known as xocolātl, a Nahuatl word meaning "bitter water". The seeds of the cacao tree have an intense bitter taste, and must be fermented to develop the flavor. We even got to try some of the seeds! Extremely bitter -- yuck!
But we also got to try actual delicious Cadbury chocolate. As we went through the factory, every so often our guide would hand us another sample for our mini plastic bags. For example, we saw one of the Cadbury 'chocolate button' making machines -- and got little baggies of the same buttons coming down the factory line! Next, we moved on to view workers on the actual packaging assembly line, working on Easter candy for New Zealand. We learned this amazing fact: It takes workers in the factory 6 MONTHS to produce and package all the chocolate consumed by Kiwis for that ONE WEEK of Easter. WOW! Here is the list of chocolate bars (some full sized, some mini sized) that we got to sample:
Chocolate Fish: YUM! Pink marshmallow bar covered in chocolate! Ate this while watching the intro video.
Cadbury Dream: Very sweet. White chocolate mini bar. Ate this while learning about the different types of chocolate.
Chocolate Milk Buttons: Simple, yet very good chocolate 'pieces.' Saved this one, because Henk and I tried it not too long ago.
Perky Nana: Amazing!! Chocolate bar with strong banana flavor/filling. We scarfed down full sized bars, then presented our guide with our empty wrappers to earn mini-sized bars.
Pinky: 50% less fat chocolate. Haven't tried this one yet. Chocolate needs its' fat!
Curly Wurly: Pure chocolate bar, but very thin and in a fantastic & cute pattern!
Pineapple Lumps: I grabbed this one in the gift shop to take home. I thought Henk would enjoy it. :) Hey, it has pineapple!
We also saw different colored tubes, each with a different type of chocolate (milk, dark, white) in them, or with marshmallow inside! The tour ended with a fantastic visit to one of the Cadbury factory 'towers.' Inside this tower, we were told to scream out 'WE WANT CHOCOLATE!!' as loud as possible. Once we screamed to our guide's satisfaction, she pushed a button and we watched as the sky seemed to open up and 1 TON of chocolate came pouring down like a waterfall right in front of us! We had to stand back against the wall, or else we would have been covered in chocolate. But hey, that's not so bad, is it? :)
You would think that we would be stuffed full after all that chocolate, but we were ready for dinner instead! Around 5:00 pm, right after our chocolate tour, we went for dinner at Speight's Ale House. Conveniently located right next to the Speight's Brewery for our next tour! Henk and I sat down and split some kumara fries (I think Henk's addicted to them now! But I have to say, these ones were much better than the ones from Hell's Pizza.) and a black-cherry, cashew, and cheese chicken dish with kumara mash and a salad. Amazing! No time for dessert though, our tour was at 6:00 PM.
Henk and I walked to Speight's Brewery and checked in right away. Our guide for this tour was this fun dude named John, who broke the ice by making us all introduce ourselves to a few others on the tour real quick. Then he started leading us through the brewery. Simple at first, we went through the history of beer and hops starting with the Egyptians. Next, we learned about how Vikings used to scalp their enemies and drank beer out of their skulls! Yikes! Finally, we got specifically into the history of Speight's brew, called a 'gold medal ale' for a good reason! John revealed to us a case filled with gold medals won by Speight's for their awesome beer.
We saw giant metal 'Steels Mashers', which mash malt grist with warm water, combining the two into a resulting 'mash' product. Naturally, this mash is converted from malt starch into sugars. Later the sugar is separated from the remaining malt, in a process called 'lautering,' which takes 2-3 hours. During this process, hot water is sprayed on top of the mash, and many flavor enhancing reactions take place before product is sent to a holding vessel.
One of our last stops was in a room storing hops. John told us a story about how he met a brewer from the USA. During their talk about the brewing process, the US brewer mentioned that instead of hops, they used part of the cannibis plant during their brewing process -- for flavor. Hops and cannibis are closely related plants, John learned, so the alternate plant did not result in a huge difference during brewing. John was then giving another tour, one which included a 7-year-old boy and his parents. When entering the room with hops, the boy caught the attention of the room with his keen observation, declaring: "It smells like cannibis in here!"
After a short video about the 'personality' of Speight's beer (they have a reputation for being the 'Southern Man's brew') we were led into a private room for our beer samples. We were given 6 different samples of beer -- and got to pour our own from the tap! I wasn't sure how to do it at all, and didn't realize the glass is supposed to be tilted. I ended up with a glass full of foam! o.o Whoops. :) Henk and I both agreed that the last beer we sampled, called 'Pale Ale,' was the best. Pretty mild, it had a slightly tropical taste. Try it! Here are the rest of the beers we sampled:
Speight's Gold Medal: Not too strong. Good with potato or bread and veggie heavy dishes.
Speight's Old Dark: Dessert ale; supposed to be good with chocolate but it was WAY too strong for me!
Speight's Summit: Smooth-flavored, crisp and refreshing.
Speight's Distinction: Great with lamb or fish dishes, light meats.
Speight's Porter: Very dark, chestnut with reddish highlights and caramel.
Speight's Pale Ale: Very good! Tropical flavor for fish dishes.
After having our fill of beer, we went back to our hostel and watched the movie 'The Green Mile' -- which I had never seen before! I can't believe I hadn't, because it's an awesome movie. Henk made me watch it, and I'm glad he did. I had assumed it was a war movie or something like that previously. :) But it was awesome!
The next morning, we went to the Farmers Market and walked around sampling the different meats and honey. But our main plan for the day was much more interesting than fresh vegetibles. We were going to take the bus to Baldwin Street: The Steepest Street in the world! The first part was pretty simple, we got our tickets at the Info-site, and jumped on the bus. The steepest street looked SO cool! But it was much easier to climb up than it looks. Just stick to the sidewalks and handrails, and huff and puff a little, and you're up there in no time. However, we still witnessed many slackers driving to the top. Lame!!
This street, famous for being the steepest street, is also the location of a famous event: the rolling of Cadbury Jaffa balls during the yearly Cadbury festival! Giant Jaffa balls with numbers on them are released by participants at one time, and the first ball to 'cross the finish line' wins! Henk and I did not make it to Dunedin in time to do this, wanting to take our trip nice and slow, but I was still determined to be a part of the action! I was gonna roll SOMETHING down Baldwin Street. Take a look at what we did!
Here is the video of our 'Apple-Bowling,' ENJOY!!:
Anyways, the rest of the day was pretty low-key. We walked along the main shopping streets, and in the mall, just exploring a little. Oh! And I'll never forget that night. It was slightly... 'adventurous,' to say the least. Let's just say, while in bed, Henk reached for what he thought was a bottle of water. We had both forgotten that we had purchased a small bottle of olive oil for cooking, which looked horribly similar to the bottle of water we had purchased at Cadbury. ACK!! I chased after Henk to make sure he was OK after he scared the people outside using the internet computers by running half-naked to the toilets to throw up quite a bit of olive oil. o.o YIKES. To make sure he'd never do it again I wrote 'DO NOT DRINK' on the bottle.
The next morning, we took the 10:00 am bus to Queenstown -- and MAN what a horrible drive! Long and boring, at least we had lots of leg room. We did magazine crossword puzzels and shared a Big Bikkie icecream. We got into Queenstown around 2:45 pm and checked back into The Black Sheep hostel. Well, technically Henk checked us in and ran our stuff up there while I booked us into a cool hostel for our time in Christchurch. But you'll have to wait for details on that! We grabbed another famous Fergburger to split for dinner, and relaxed back in our room for the night.
See Ya Everyone!
Francesca
Waaaay back in Taupo, when I had a craving for pizza, Henk and I simply ordered something from Pizza Hut and went on our way. Our hostel reception had mentioned Hell's Pizza , but we hadn't really considered it. Boy, am I glad we checked it out this time! This New Zealand national pizza chain has fantastic pizza -- with a sinister theme to boot. The store itself played rock music, had arcade games such as 'House of the Dead,' and even a fireplace and flat-screen TV. The cash registers were even tiny tombstones!
After looking at their extensive menu, with pizzas entitled 'Lust,' 'Sloth,' and 'Envy,' etc. after the 7 Deadly Sins, Henk and I decided on getting two pizzas: a 'mini' sized Greed pizza (double ham, double pineapple, and double cheese) and a larger sized Gluttony pizza (pineapple, mushrooms, bacon, black pepper, capsicum, ham, salami, tomatoes, onions, and garlic) -- plus garlic bread and Kumara fries. Yes, we splurged a little that night! We brought the pizza into our hostel's empty TV lounge and just chilled. :)
The next morning was a late start. We attempted to sleep in, since we hadn't been getting much rest lately, but the painters outside our room had other plans. After I asked them to turn down the music, we took a nice, long shower. Finally, around 4:00 pm, we went to the small Southland Museum & Art Gallery. The highlights were seeing some live Tuataras: the only survivor of a large group of reptiles that roamed the earth at the same time as dinosaurs -- plus they breathe only once per hour! We also saw the skeletons of Moas: huge ancient (now extinct) New Zealand birds around the height of Big Bird from Sesame Street! Crazy to imagine they were once alive!! o.o
That night, we planned on grabbing dinner from the supermarket, because we spotted a good deal the night before: a hot roast chicken, potato salad, coleslaw, and a six-pack of dinner rolls for $20 NZD. But before we could pick up our meal to take it back to the TV lounge again, we stopped for a quick drink at this awesome zoo-animal themed cafe I had read about in our Lonely Planet guidebook. Pretty neat!
The next morning around 10:30 am, we took the bus from Invercargill to Dunedin, getting ready for a looong day. Our plan was to arrive in Dunedin around 2:00 pm, check into our hotel across from a church. The large unique hostel was called Hogwartz -- and happened to be a former Catholic bishop's residence -- complete with some awesome rooms! We dropped our stuff in the room and proceeded to 'the Octagon' for our tours.
First was a tour at 3:00 pm of the famous Cadbury chocolate factory. Entering those purple-themed walls filled with chocolate was the perfect experience for me! Henk and I first went through the educational 'History of Chocolate/History of Cadbury' interactive displays, then we were given hairnets and mini plastic bags which included a Cadbury chocolate and marshmallow fish. We enjoyed one of the fish while watching an introductory video to Cadbury. Then for the sad part: we had to lock up all our cameras and cell phones. Photography of the secret Cadbury methods is strictly prohibited! But at least we got to see it. :)
Our journey into the factory was a decent into an increasingly chocolate atmosphere. We learned that: the majority of the Mesoamerican peoples made chocolate beverages, including the Aztecs and the Maya, who made it into a beverage known as xocolātl, a Nahuatl word meaning "bitter water". The seeds of the cacao tree have an intense bitter taste, and must be fermented to develop the flavor. We even got to try some of the seeds! Extremely bitter -- yuck!
But we also got to try actual delicious Cadbury chocolate. As we went through the factory, every so often our guide would hand us another sample for our mini plastic bags. For example, we saw one of the Cadbury 'chocolate button' making machines -- and got little baggies of the same buttons coming down the factory line! Next, we moved on to view workers on the actual packaging assembly line, working on Easter candy for New Zealand. We learned this amazing fact: It takes workers in the factory 6 MONTHS to produce and package all the chocolate consumed by Kiwis for that ONE WEEK of Easter. WOW! Here is the list of chocolate bars (some full sized, some mini sized) that we got to sample:
Chocolate Fish: YUM! Pink marshmallow bar covered in chocolate! Ate this while watching the intro video.
Cadbury Dream: Very sweet. White chocolate mini bar. Ate this while learning about the different types of chocolate.
Chocolate Milk Buttons: Simple, yet very good chocolate 'pieces.' Saved this one, because Henk and I tried it not too long ago.
Perky Nana: Amazing!! Chocolate bar with strong banana flavor/filling. We scarfed down full sized bars, then presented our guide with our empty wrappers to earn mini-sized bars.
Pinky: 50% less fat chocolate. Haven't tried this one yet. Chocolate needs its' fat!
Curly Wurly: Pure chocolate bar, but very thin and in a fantastic & cute pattern!
Pineapple Lumps: I grabbed this one in the gift shop to take home. I thought Henk would enjoy it. :) Hey, it has pineapple!
We also saw different colored tubes, each with a different type of chocolate (milk, dark, white) in them, or with marshmallow inside! The tour ended with a fantastic visit to one of the Cadbury factory 'towers.' Inside this tower, we were told to scream out 'WE WANT CHOCOLATE!!' as loud as possible. Once we screamed to our guide's satisfaction, she pushed a button and we watched as the sky seemed to open up and 1 TON of chocolate came pouring down like a waterfall right in front of us! We had to stand back against the wall, or else we would have been covered in chocolate. But hey, that's not so bad, is it? :)
You would think that we would be stuffed full after all that chocolate, but we were ready for dinner instead! Around 5:00 pm, right after our chocolate tour, we went for dinner at Speight's Ale House. Conveniently located right next to the Speight's Brewery for our next tour! Henk and I sat down and split some kumara fries (I think Henk's addicted to them now! But I have to say, these ones were much better than the ones from Hell's Pizza.) and a black-cherry, cashew, and cheese chicken dish with kumara mash and a salad. Amazing! No time for dessert though, our tour was at 6:00 PM.
Henk and I walked to Speight's Brewery and checked in right away. Our guide for this tour was this fun dude named John, who broke the ice by making us all introduce ourselves to a few others on the tour real quick. Then he started leading us through the brewery. Simple at first, we went through the history of beer and hops starting with the Egyptians. Next, we learned about how Vikings used to scalp their enemies and drank beer out of their skulls! Yikes! Finally, we got specifically into the history of Speight's brew, called a 'gold medal ale' for a good reason! John revealed to us a case filled with gold medals won by Speight's for their awesome beer.
We saw giant metal 'Steels Mashers', which mash malt grist with warm water, combining the two into a resulting 'mash' product. Naturally, this mash is converted from malt starch into sugars. Later the sugar is separated from the remaining malt, in a process called 'lautering,' which takes 2-3 hours. During this process, hot water is sprayed on top of the mash, and many flavor enhancing reactions take place before product is sent to a holding vessel.
One of our last stops was in a room storing hops. John told us a story about how he met a brewer from the USA. During their talk about the brewing process, the US brewer mentioned that instead of hops, they used part of the cannibis plant during their brewing process -- for flavor. Hops and cannibis are closely related plants, John learned, so the alternate plant did not result in a huge difference during brewing. John was then giving another tour, one which included a 7-year-old boy and his parents. When entering the room with hops, the boy caught the attention of the room with his keen observation, declaring: "It smells like cannibis in here!"
After a short video about the 'personality' of Speight's beer (they have a reputation for being the 'Southern Man's brew') we were led into a private room for our beer samples. We were given 6 different samples of beer -- and got to pour our own from the tap! I wasn't sure how to do it at all, and didn't realize the glass is supposed to be tilted. I ended up with a glass full of foam! o.o Whoops. :) Henk and I both agreed that the last beer we sampled, called 'Pale Ale,' was the best. Pretty mild, it had a slightly tropical taste. Try it! Here are the rest of the beers we sampled:
Speight's Gold Medal: Not too strong. Good with potato or bread and veggie heavy dishes.
Speight's Old Dark: Dessert ale; supposed to be good with chocolate but it was WAY too strong for me!
Speight's Summit: Smooth-flavored, crisp and refreshing.
Speight's Distinction: Great with lamb or fish dishes, light meats.
Speight's Porter: Very dark, chestnut with reddish highlights and caramel.
Speight's Pale Ale: Very good! Tropical flavor for fish dishes.
After having our fill of beer, we went back to our hostel and watched the movie 'The Green Mile' -- which I had never seen before! I can't believe I hadn't, because it's an awesome movie. Henk made me watch it, and I'm glad he did. I had assumed it was a war movie or something like that previously. :) But it was awesome!
The next morning, we went to the Farmers Market and walked around sampling the different meats and honey. But our main plan for the day was much more interesting than fresh vegetibles. We were going to take the bus to Baldwin Street: The Steepest Street in the world! The first part was pretty simple, we got our tickets at the Info-site, and jumped on the bus. The steepest street looked SO cool! But it was much easier to climb up than it looks. Just stick to the sidewalks and handrails, and huff and puff a little, and you're up there in no time. However, we still witnessed many slackers driving to the top. Lame!!
This street, famous for being the steepest street, is also the location of a famous event: the rolling of Cadbury Jaffa balls during the yearly Cadbury festival! Giant Jaffa balls with numbers on them are released by participants at one time, and the first ball to 'cross the finish line' wins! Henk and I did not make it to Dunedin in time to do this, wanting to take our trip nice and slow, but I was still determined to be a part of the action! I was gonna roll SOMETHING down Baldwin Street. Take a look at what we did!
Here is the video of our 'Apple-Bowling,' ENJOY!!:
Anyways, the rest of the day was pretty low-key. We walked along the main shopping streets, and in the mall, just exploring a little. Oh! And I'll never forget that night. It was slightly... 'adventurous,' to say the least. Let's just say, while in bed, Henk reached for what he thought was a bottle of water. We had both forgotten that we had purchased a small bottle of olive oil for cooking, which looked horribly similar to the bottle of water we had purchased at Cadbury. ACK!! I chased after Henk to make sure he was OK after he scared the people outside using the internet computers by running half-naked to the toilets to throw up quite a bit of olive oil. o.o YIKES. To make sure he'd never do it again I wrote 'DO NOT DRINK' on the bottle.
The next morning, we took the 10:00 am bus to Queenstown -- and MAN what a horrible drive! Long and boring, at least we had lots of leg room. We did magazine crossword puzzels and shared a Big Bikkie icecream. We got into Queenstown around 2:45 pm and checked back into The Black Sheep hostel. Well, technically Henk checked us in and ran our stuff up there while I booked us into a cool hostel for our time in Christchurch. But you'll have to wait for details on that! We grabbed another famous Fergburger to split for dinner, and relaxed back in our room for the night.
See Ya Everyone!
Francesca
