Dunedin & Academy Court Motels

... for a while. The coffee, music, talk and atmosphere made me feel almost like I was back at college in a coffee shop just off campus.<br><br>Our first activity was a tour of Cadbury World, the chocolate factory in Dunedin. It was sort of neat seeing behind the scenes, and especially getting free chocolate, but it was still just a factory. They had a chocolate fall, but it was just for entertainment purposes and had no manufacturing use. Later that evening we toured the ...

... the brewery floor and finally given a taste of 6 different Speight's beers. Speight's is a south island beer, and they love it! David liked the dark ales but I preferred the pale ale and Speight's Gold. We could pull the drinks ourselves, which is easier said than done. I would be no good as a bar maid because I got loads of froth in my beer. We had 30 minutes of unlimited tasting, and we had not eaten, so by the end we were quite tipsy. We still went to the supermarket and ...

... proved to be a big mistake! The first young lady we approached directed us to a motel complex close to the centre and booked a double unit for us. When we got there it was truly awful, with accommodation that I can't believe would have been acceptable to first year students, let alone highly sophisticated travelers like what we are! Back we went to the Info centre and a second, (rather more mature) lady booked us into an, only very slightly better unit,  just around the corner ...

... south from Oamaru. Our next destination, after a few stops along the way, was at the famous Moeraki Boulders (yup, more rock formations). These are spherical rocks created millions of years ago within mudstone, and eventually exposed by erosion, they now sit in the middle of the beach and it looks like they don't really bellong there, it's really weird and extremelly interesting. And they are famous alright, there was really a lot of people walking around there. After we ...

... around you always meet other people from the bus, so I didn't walk all alone. And moreover, it's even the group which I already spent a lot of time with when we were in Queensland and on the Milford Sound trip. In my opinion Dunedin is quite nice but nothing special. Probably except for the steepest street of the world that we're supposed to see tomorrow morning before leaving this place and heading to the next which is Lake Tekapo.

... w**e formed from limestone crystals in the mud cliff behind, A couple of them can be seen half-em**ged from the cliffs. Mo**aki itself is a picturesque fishing village. It was originally a Maori settlement. The first Europeans came h**e for whaling. We go for a walk around the coast. Th**e is a v**y good restaurant h**e, Fleur's place, which looks enticing but unfortunately we are ...

The time has arrived for me to leave good ol' Dunedin and head back out on the road again. i've been talking about my upcoming trip to Australia for a while now, and it's (almost) hard to believe that i'm only 3 days away from boarding a bus and heading back up to christchurch to begin my journey. i had planned to spend this last week tying up loose ends and getting things ...

... and huge apologies that this wasnt included earlier to sinead and michael!!! congrats on your fab news - im so pleased for the both of you - charlesland will soon be basking in the glow of a Baby Slater - yay!! to sue and tadhg - congrats on the fantastic news, im so pleased for you both and what a romantic day it sounded like - but please dont get married until i get home!! and finally to grainne and dave on the incredible news - that was one way to make me ...

... water used in food and drink manufacture must be subjected to an approved treatment process before use, so Speight's spend thousands of dollars chlorinating the water, then further thousands to dechlorinate it again because they don't much fancy making ale that tastes of bleach. The rules happen to be worded in such a way that the water being 'pure' is never mentioned, it only matters that it has been 'purified'. Obviously, a demand for something pure to be purified is both ...

... winds. The crew said it was like a holiday! After admiring neck-cricking waterfalls, the boat suddenly went haring across the fiord - bottlenose dolphins! Parents and little dolphins happily played around the boat for ages while seals dozed ignored on the rocks behind them. Result!<br><br>'Stoked' with excellent views, next day we went for a walk on the Circle Track at Manapouri. This is accessed by rowboat across the Waiau River, and thus resulted in a little ...