So Day 2 was off to a chilly start. We had decided that our studio apartment wasn’t really fit for cooking breakfast, as there is only a microwave and we hadn’t got around to finding the grocery store just yet. We walked, quite carefully to ‘The Octagon’ which curiously enough is an octagonal arrangement of street that mark the centre of town. The careful walking was due to the black ice on the roads and footpaths which is very slippery underfoot – not a concept I am used to!
We found an excellent cafe called ‘The Perc’ and settled in for a leisurely breakfast. I was not overly enthusiastic about going outside again until it had at least got somewhere above freezing. In reality I think it had maybe struggled above zero, but not by much. Anyway we had a bit of time to waste before going to ‘Cadbury Word’, so wandered to the Dunedin railway station, which is a magnificent example early 20th century architecture, built in 1906.
The interior is also spectacular with some amazing floor mosaics as well as some ornate work around the walls and the inside of the station.
From there it was off to Cadbury World where we learnt a lot of facts about the history of chocolate. The tour takes you through a lot of the stages of the manufacturing process, but you never really get close to any of it, which did make me wonder why I had to wear a plastic glove on my ring hand and a fairly unfashionable hair net as well as locking away any other chattels. Nonetheless, we both walked away with bags of free chocolate, so I guess that was a win. As far as the tour went, we had an engaging tour guide, I learnt a lot about the process and admired his ability not to slap the poorly behaved child in the group,
The beauty of a small city is that most things are within reach on foot. From the Cadbury factory we walked to Otago University – where Deb did her degree a few years ago. Interestingly, some of her lecturers are still there. The campus itself is very english and has some stunning buildings. It was funny to see that young people do not change and we did see one girl walking between lectures wearing jeans and a mid-riff top despite the temperature still hovering around the 2 degree mark!
I quite enjoyed the warning signs that we don’t necessarily see in Brisbane…
From there, we found a place for lunch and then walked around various art galleries and some shops. We found the locals very friendly and accommodating. Dunedin has quite a collection of street art, murals painted on what might otherwise be boring walls. Here’s one example…
Among the other shops is a rugby store which used to be inappropriately named ‘Champions of the World’ where I managed to find the one shirt that didn’t have a silver fern on it. We shall see later in the year if this store remains appropriately named.
As the sun came out in the afternoon, bringing the ambient temperatures up to almost liveable we toured a few more galleries and churches prior to heading back to the apartment to give our aching feet a break.
After regrouping over a glass of wine, we ventured out for dinner. Now I know I’ve gone on a bit about being cold, but … it was a cold walk to dinner (-2 according to accuweather), but I had a great steak and Deb had a chicken Filo that she enjoyed , followed with Banofee Pie (Deb only… I was full from my most excellent steak), before we braved the antarctic conditions back to the apartment. Given the forecast is for -6 tonight, we think a sleep in is in order and we jump in the car tomorrow to explore some of the nearby sights,
Until tomorrow
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