After enjoying a few days in the country it was on to the south islands second biggest town of Dunedin. The name Dunedin is apparently gaelic for Edinburgh so we were hoping to find a bit of a home from home. We stopped at a few scenic points along the way before arriving in the town centre around lunch time. We parked up and headed to the tourist info to get a town map and see what trouble we were going to get into for the next few days. Only five minutes out the van and we had passed George Street, Pitt Street, Hanover Street and we were walking down Princess Street so it was all feeling familiar! There were road signs to Musselburgh and Corstorphine making it all very surreal. Now Princess Street Dunedin style didn't quite have the same feel as home and it obviously didn't have the beautiful castle view but it was still nice to be on the other side of the world and see so many things named after our capital! Once we had all the leaflets and brochures we could carry we had a quick walk down George Street however as expected it just didn't feel the same, I don't think the Kiwis would be happy to pay 8 quid for a glass of wine anyway! After getting some lunch supplies at the supermarket we headed out of town to a campsite in an area called St Kilda. We had lunch there and then made the fatal mistake of getting too comfy in the van so that was the rest of the afternoon spent chilling out. By the time it got to late afternoon we thought we better do something with ourselves so we got wrapped up and went for a walk along the beach, a very long walk, ninety minutes to be exact but we need the exercise and it was a nice way to explore the area. We spent the rest of the evening planning out what we wanted to do with out time in Dunedin.The next day and Willy Wonka was taking Verruca Salt for a tour of the Cadbury's Chocolate Factory!! I was so excited and was even calling the girls behind the desk oomph loompas when we were getting our tickets, I don't think they saw the funny side but at least I crack myself up! The tour starts in a holding area that has lots of information about the history of chocolate, the Cadbury family and you get to try a raw cocoa bean which I can tell you is a long way from the glass and a half I have come to expect from my dairy milk! After about 15 minutes in the holding area we are collected by our guide and taken to an auditorium to watch a short film about chocolate then we are given our first free sample of chocolate, our goody bags to carry the samples and our rather fetching hairnets which we must wear for the factory tour. Then we set off on our 40 min tour to see where and how they make the chocolate. The first stop was to learn about all the raw ingredients that go into making Cadbury's chocolate. Then its on to where they make the huge 12kg blocks of chocolate that they supply to all the biscuit factories but not before we were given more samples for our goody bags. Then we see how chocolate chips for baking and chocolate buttons for eating are made. We met the man who has to routinely measure the size of the chocolate chips to ensure they conform to a uniform shape and size what a boring job that must be! We were able to see how the different easter eggs are made and packaged by hand into the various boxes. We then walk the conveyor belt line to see all the boxed sweets go from the factory floor to the massive storage facility to await being shipped throughout New Zealand, Australia and Asia. The tour concludes in the huge purple silo which has been converted to house a massive chocolate fountain and when the fountain is turned on a ton of chocolate falls from the ceiling down the entire height of the silo to the bottom. The tour seemed to be over so quickly but it had been great fun and we had also learned something about chocolate besides that it tastes amazing! As predicted the tour spits you out in the shop where you can buy lots of different Cadbury products at much reduced prices and it took almost another hour for me to choose what I wanted as there were so many yummy treats. There was no time to waste as straight after our chocoholic experience it was off to Spights Brewery to find out how they make their famous gold medal ale. Since arriving in New Zealand Michael had sampled a variety of New Zealand's brewing attempts and Speight's had been his favourite offering so we were keen to tour the original factory and more importantly sample the range in their tasting room. The tour was really good and far exceeded my expectations. Our guide was very knowledgeable but still made the whole process interesting to listen to. We had no idea that they still make the beer in exactly the same way as they did in the 17th century using all the same copper equipment that was shipped over from London all those years ago! The only thing to change is that the staff no longer get the complimentary 23 litre keg PER DAY to sup on as they work (how they managed to do anything with all that booze is beyond me). The machines to mix the hops, barley and all the other ingredients are all as they were with the only change to the process being the introduction of a few health and safety implementations and the use of metal storage kegs over the original wooden ones. All the machines were immaculate with all the old copper polished to a high shine and with their only being another 6 people on our tour we were able to take our time touring the factory learning about the art of making beer. The tour ends in the Speight's bar where you have 30 minutes to sample as many of their 6 ales as you wanted. Eventually I think the tour guide was so fed up pouring us beer that we were invited just to help ourselves and pour our own until the time was up. Much to the disgust of the beer connoisseurs on the tour I was adding a splash of lemonade to all my samples to sweeten them up as beer isn't really my favourite alcoholic beverage. It was a really great tour and getting to chat to everyone in the bar afterwards was a really nice way to round things up and make sure you got your $16's worth of beer. After the tour we had a walk around the town before having one final drink in the Quadrant which is the very centre of the town centre that houses lots of nice bars with outdoor seating areas.The next day was another scorcher so we decided to head out of town to the nearby Otago Peninsula. Our morning was spent at Larnach Castle which was built in the late 17th century by a wealthy man called William Larnach. Over the years following his suicide the castle fell into disrepair before being bought by a private investor in the 1960's and has since been lovingly repaired and filled with much of the original furniture. The castle was lovely with all the intricate detailed ceilings and both of us love to see the original features like the floor tiles, fireplaces and staircases of which there were plenty to explore. After taking the self guided tour around the castle we then took a tour of the gardens which overlooked the stunning Otago peninsula. After our tour of Larnach castle we headed off to explore some more of the beautiful countryside and take in a walk called lovers leap. After tackling the very narrow and bumpy dirt track up to the start point of the walk we discovered that the track was closed due to it being lambing season! Fortunately all was not wasted as the view from the top of the road was fantastic with the clear blue sky allowing you to see for miles. There were picnic benches right at the edge of the cliff which made for the perfect spot to have lunch looking out over the rest of the peninsula. Whilst the track we wanted was closed there was another track to a lookout point that was open so whilst we had come all the way up here in the first place we decided to walk to the lookout. It soon became apparent that we were on a very old and un-kept track as within 10 minutes we were trying to tackle our way through over grown whin bushes and long sharp grass that seemed desperate to slice open your shins! Not wanting to give up we persevered only to reach the summit for a very disappointing view of the coast. Rather than try to walk any further into the unknown we turned and made our descent back to the carpark. The next stop was the albatross colony right out on the end of the peninsula. This is thought to be the only mainland albatross colony in the world and in case you didn't know (as I didn't) an albatross is a bloody massive bird with a wing span of 3m. Just our luck it was mating season so all the birds were off humping in their giant nests so we only managed to see one big guy obviously taking a time out to circle the spit a couple of times. You cant really get a sense of how big they are as they fly around when you have nothing to compare them to but they make the seagulls look like budgies! Once we had ooed and ahhed with all the other tourists at the albatross it was time to start making our way back towards Dunedin taking the scenic route around the water stopping as we went for yet more photos before heading to camp!After a couple of fairly eventful and expensive days we decided to take in one of Dunedins free attractions, its Museum. A Modern and contemporary building housing the usual exhibits you come to expect as well as some additional short term exhibits including a display containing some pieces shipped over from the museum in Shanghai, some of New Zealands best fossils and a Butterfly exhibit. We did bypass some of the things we had already looked at in other museums but that still left plenty to keep us entertained for the rest of the afternoon. After feeling we had embraced our cultural side we dropped in at an internet café to check our emails before getting the bus back out to St Kilda.The next morning we were leaving Dunedin to head further round onto the south islands east coast with the intention of having a few overnight stops on our way to our final destination in Christchurch. On our way out of town we had just enough time to climb the official steepest street in the world. Which has a gradient of 35% or 19 degrees at its steepest point, in other words it was a bloody hike to get to the top!!! So in our warped minds that made it ok for us to have a massive KFC before hitting the road again, woohoo!!!