Day 76 - Corrie and the Chocolate Factory

Last night was freezing in the van; the temperature dropped dramatically and we both woke early to numb noses and very chilly bed covers. Corrie was unimpressed when brushing her teeth she overheard an older couple saying how it was so cold they’d both put their heating on in their big posh campervans – huh! We seriously thought about purchasing an electric blanket or mini electric heater for our little van/ freezer. The sleeping bags will be out if it is that cold again.

We set off at about 10:00 and started the journey to Dunedin firstly making a stop at the famous Moeraki Boulders. These spherical rocks are all embedded in the sands of the beach and are quite the tourist attraction.

Once we made it to Dunedin we parked our van at the bottom of a street, Baldwin Street – the steepest street in the world. Obviously we had to walk up it and take a few photos, we’re tourists and that’s what we do. There’s houses at the top and cars also but Danny told Corrie that Rhonda could think again if they lived here and once he’d returned from the shops, on foot, and she realised she’d forgotten to ask for milk! Once back down at the bottom we noticed the dustbin wagon pulling into the street and decided to watch to see if it would… and it did! The wagon drove all the way to the top and back down again, emptying the bins as it went – that’s good service.

We then parked the van for lunch and realised we were parked right outside the Cadbury factory. We also realised that we had a 10% discount for a full tour here and so decided to give it a go after lunch. We’d timed it well as there was a tour set to leave in a few minutes and so decided to join it. This was a good tour, with lots of free chocolate and insights into how all sorts of their products are made. Corrie enjoyed the fact that Danny had to wear a snood (or something) to cover his beard as well as a hair net. We also got to try some of the hot liquid dairy milk before it’s put into moulds – yummy.

We then decided to visit the famous, and second most photographed building in the southern hemisphere (try and guess the first), railway station. There’s something special about this station but Danny couldn’t remember what that something is though Corrie assures him it is simply because it is old.

After here we travelled out to the Otago Peninsula and straight to our campsite in Portabello. Once checked in we made our way further along the peninsula to the Penguin Place where we got lucky with our timing again and got on a tour that was just about to depart. This tour was really good and worth the money, running over the 90 minute expected time and hitting the 2 hour mark. We saw about eight of the yellow-eyed penguins in close quarters thanks to the trench system that runs around the private land here. The area kind-of looks like Hobbiton, but for penguins, with all the little triangular huts on the hilly landscape.

From here we went to the tip of the peninsula to see if we could spot anymore albatrosses from the car park of the albatross centre. We did spot a couple flying around amongst the seagulls but didn’t stick around long as it was almost sunset and we had to get back to make tea.