The end product of the weed pile!
The day before we were going to fly out of Christchurch, we bid our hosts farewell and meandered our way up to Dunedin, a city on the southeast side of the island. On our way we drove through the Caitlins and stopped at various sights such as a petrified forest from the Jurassic age.
The main attraction in Dunedin was Cadbury World. Ever since I went to England at 13 and had that first taste of a Cadbury milk chocolate bar, I have been captive to its wonderful creamy spell. When we first arrived in New Zealand, I was overwhelmed by how many Cadbury products graced the supermarket shelves. Crunchie bars, flakes, pinky bars, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, mint chocolate, coconut chocolate… you get the idea. The prospect of being able to visit the factory—to get a glimpse of where it’s all made, gave my heart a few flutters.
We got to the factory in time for the 3 o’clock tour. We had to wear hairnets while a guy in purple overalls led us through torturously scented halls lined with assembly-line machines. We got to see them making a 12 kg (7lb) chocolate bar for commercial use! They were also in the process for making crème eggs for Easter. The Cadbury crème eggs here are literally the size of a hefty grapefruit. I was literally drooling over the display of it, but unfortunately, didn’t get the opportunity to buy one (Why oh why couldn’t we have been there during the Easter season!?!?). At one point in the tour we got to watch a ton (literally 2000 lbs) of liquid chocolate drop down a height of 4 stories. It was ridiculous.
Even though we got free samples of products during our tour, David and I knocked ourselves out at the gift shop in the end. Since our time left in New Zealand was quite limited, we spent most of our cash on chocolate bars. Money well spent if you ask me!
Another exciting thing that happened that day took place in the supermarket just across the street from Cadbury World. David and I were shopping for dinner supplies when I noticed a rather tall girl perusing the fresh produce section. She turned around, and the realization slowly dawned on me that I recognized her. Not some long lost friend from home or anything—hers was a face I’d seen on TV. She was actually a contestant on the current season of New Zealand’s Next Top Model, an episode of which I happened to watch about a month earlier. I was a little shellshocked to see her in a supermarket…
From Dunedin we drove up north to Oamaru. This town has character with a capital C. Most of the settlements/cities in NZ are very similar when it comes to architecture. The buildings are all very small and boxy. Not so in Oamaru. There were old, stone based buildings that transported you back to the 19th century. It was lovely. But Oamaru isn’t famous for its buildings—it’s famous for its penguins.
We came to the town with the objective of sighting both the rare yellow-crested penguins and the blue-footed penguins (aka fairy penguins). I’d never before seen penguins in the wild, so it was to be a first for me. We headed off to Brush Beach, where the yellow-crested penguins are known to hang out. They’re very shy, and if they see or hear you they’ll dive straight into the ocean. We couldn’t reach the beach from where we’d parked the car—there were thirty-foot cliffs between us and the sand. I wandered over to the edge to get a closer look when all of the sudden one of those gigantic penguins scuttled away from me. I froze and stayed motionless while David scrambled back to the car to get the camera. The penguin and I locked eyes for about a minute. They’re such strange creatures, penguins. So awkward yet graceful at the same time. God really did have a sense of humor when he created those buggers.
We also got to see the blue-footed penguins as they swarmed in from their twilight feeding in the ocean. They were quite adorable—making sounds like eager squeaky toys as they waddled across the sand.
Farewell, NZ!
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