Dunedin

On Friday, we took our first excursion, which was a panorama tour of the city of Dunedin. On our way to Dunedin from the cruise ship, we passed some more coastal scenery.

Our bus driver's name was Dave, and he was also our tour guide. Our weather was beautiful with lots of sunshine. Apparently the weather had been cool, overcast, and rainy the last few weeks. Dave told us that they've been waiting for weeks for weather like this.

Dave

Dunedin is the oldest city in New Zealand. It was named after the city of Dunedin in Scotland and is known as the Edinboro of the south. Dave told us that Dunedin means "near Edinboro". Dunedin is a university city and a lot of its population of 150,000 is comprised of students. There is lots of basalt here as the city is built on an old volcano, which fortunately for us, is no longer active. Dunedin had a gold rush back in the 1860s and became a wealthy city. 

Typical Dunedin street scene

Our first stop was at the Dunedin Railway Station. The Railway Station is a beautiful building. It is sometimes called the Gingerbread House. It is made of basalt and the roof is the color of gingerbread, hence the nickname. 

Dunedin Railway Station

Inside the Railway Station

We drove by St. Paul's Cathedral. There is a statue of the famous Scottish poet, Robert Burns in front of the Cathedral. We were told by Dave that "Rabbie Burns" (as he called him) was an atheist and so his statue is placed with his back to the Cathedral. Robert Burns wrote Auld Lang Syne. One of his famous quotes is "There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing."

We drove through some residential areas with some very ordinary looking homes that Dave told us are in the price range of $750,000 to $1,000,000. 

Typical million dollar home

There used to be a Cadbury Chocolate factory in Dunedin, but they tore it down and are building a hospital in its place. I guess if you ate too many chocolates, you could end up in the same location you bought the chocolates, only this time in a hospital room.

We drove by an existing hospital and Dave told us that in the hospital, the university students "practice on real people." Hopefully with actual real doctors in attendance!

Interesting name for a pharmacy: Antidote!

Our second stop of the day was to take pictures of Baldwin Street. According to the Guinness World Records, Baldwin Street is the steepest street in the world. We have some pretty steep streets in Pittsburgh, so we were skeptical, but if they're in the Guinness Book of World Records, it must be true. It's hard to tell from the photo, but it has a 34.8% grade.

Baldwin Street

Our next stop was to take a tour of Speight's Brewery. Apparently Speight's is a famous brewery in this part of the world. One of the founders and original owners was James Speight. He only owned 20%, while two other men owned 40% each, but the brewery was named for Speight because he was a very clever salesman and was responsible for much of the growth of the brewery. Our tour guide for the brewery was Annika. She said that James would go to bars, park his vehicle across the street, and give away free beer. The customers would all leave the bar for the free beer. When the owner of the bar would come out to see what was going on, James told him he would stop giving away the free beer if he bought and sold his product in his bar. 

Entrance to Speight's Brewery

When James first started the brewery, he had dug in his back yard, which was next door to the place where they had built the brewery, until he hit spring water. He wanted to use the water in his brewery but needed to get permission from the city commissioners. They gave him permission under one condition - that he made spring water available for free to all the residents of the city. James was happy to do so, and the spout with the free spring water is still outside the building today. In fact, while we were there, quite a few people walked up to the spout and filled water bottles. 

Brewery water tap

Annika told us that one day a newspaper ran a story that the pipes in the brewery got crossed, and free beer was flowing out of the tap instead of water. Pretty soon there were long lines down the street with people waiting to fill their containers with the free beer. They were disappointed when they learned that instead of beer, it was in fact, really water as usual. The people apparently failed to notice the date of the newspaper: April 1 (April Fool's Day).

The brewery tour mostly took place in a part of the building with machinery and containers that are no longer in use, as they have modernized. 

The three ingredients used to make beer

After touring the old part of the brewery, we did see the room with all the modern equipment. 

At the end of the tour, there were 10 different kinds of beer available for tasting.

Our last stop of the day was at the Botanical Gardens. We walked around and took some pictures of the colorful flowers and pleasant gardens.