Archive for the 'Dunedin' Category
The Capital Of Quirky
May 25th, 2010
I spent some time with the Dunedin Tourism team yesterday, and let me set the stage by explaining that their booth at TRENZ has a bar with a beer tap!! I heard lots of very cool quirky things about Dunedin beyond Naked Rugby. Here are just a few:
Knitting in a bar
You can join a knitting circle at AL BAR (formerly known as CENTRAL BAR before the first five letters fell off the sign!). Dunedin locals, including university students, turn up to knit their wears each Monday evening. AL BAR, like the city itself, has a very Scottish vibe serving haggis and a wide selection of whiskey. The bar also has live traditional Gaelic music.
Perfect Woman
According to Dunedin’s Speight’s beer, “It’s a hard road finding the perfect woman.” Each year Kiwi women battle it out for the Perfect Woman title through a series of competitions including sheep sheering and beer drinking.
Learn how to sheer sheep at Natures Wonders – a working farm and conservation property on the nearby Otago Peninsula.
Bring your own lunch to a coffee shop
The Fix Coffee on Frederick Street focuses on what they do best – coffee. Bring your own lunch and chill out in the courtyard with an eclectic mix of Dunedin locals. Fix was Dunedin’s first hole in the wall coffee outlet ten years ago. Since then, the owners have been roasting coffee with the aim to produce the finest and freshest available.
Even better than being in the dog house
Budget conscious travellers can get their beauty sleep inside the stables of New Zealand’s only castle, Larnach Castle. The 135-year-old stables are rated the highest in the category of historic New Zealand buildings. (And you can sleep in the stables – no kidding!) Only overnight guests can dine inside the castle, which is steeped in history, scandal, and of course there are rumours of ghosts! Larnach Castle also has a four-star lodge and runs daily tours of the castle and gardens.
There’s a beer tap in that wall!
In central Dunedin, the Speight’s brewery lies on top of a natural mineral water stream. Aside from using the water to brew this popular beer, it is made available to passers by. A street-side tap on the wall outside the brewery tours entrance gives access to the water.
Get this: Before 1950, the brewery staff had a daily allowance of 12 litres of beer!
A World Made Of Chocolate
May 25th, 2010
Jaffas, Pineapple Lumps, Hokey Pokey and Chocolate Fish…sounds pretty funny to me, but these are iconic Kiwi treats.
I got to spend time with the good people at Cadbury World, based in Dunedin, New Zealand. (I have a whole other post coming on that quirky little city!) I think the only people who have a better job than me, might be these guys. They take their chocolate seriously…I mean, they have a Chocolate Carnival that lasts a week!! From July 11 to 17 – how sweet is that?
Cadbury World looks like a very fun place to visit – where the heck is my bucket list, I need to add this! And they are very involved in their community with lots of whacky events like the Cadbury Jaffa Race. On Friday July 16, two sets of 25,000 Jaffas will be released from the top of Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world. The tasty little treats will come flying down the street, bouncing towards the crowds and hurtling through space as they make their way to the bottom.
I am going to have to get some Jaffas and Pineapple Lumps to take back to the office with me!