2/1–Dunedin–Afternoon Brewery tour

The walk back into town goes quickly.  We detour over the train track flyover and take a direct route to Speight’s, the oldest brewery in New Zealand.  We’ve booked the 12 noon tour and are about an hour early, so we check in, pay, then head to their cozy pub for a pre-tour wine and beer. 

The pub is really attractive, with lots of brick and copper and these comfy leather sofas arranged around a (not working today) fireplace.  Nice!

Noon arrives and we set off on our tour.  Our tour guide, Dave, is the great grandson of the original malter  – so he’s got history here – and lots of knowledge.  He’s funny and has a very dry wit as he tells us about the history of the brewery, how the 3 founders worked together originally all by themselves to brew and distribute the beer. Then they brought his great grandfather in to help with the malt product and the brew, began to grow and grow, until at one time they were producing over 50% of all beer in New Zealand.

He takes us through the history, the fire that brought down the large malt house and caused Speights to lose a year’s worth of beer production, prohibition, which never really seemed to happen here, expansion, employee morale (they are all allowed to drink on the job – as much beer as they want – but not too much so that they are impaired!), the brewing process, and the major construction going on inside the plant now (a lot of it due to the earthquake in Christchurch with destroyed an entire production line of beer – and cannot be rebuilt, thus, they are adding on/rebuilding here in Dunedin to pick up the production).

Dave explains the cask system and the different sizes, and how the #1 cask was for the coopers themselves (the men who made the casks). The coopers were housed in a different building from the main factory.  Since all employees were allowed to drink, and the in the main factory had a bar/lounge on every floor, they needed to devise a way to give the coopers their beer.  So they created the #1 cask – which was supposed to hold something like 22 gallons of beer and be shared by 2 coopers each.  That’s a lot of beer!!  Typically they would take the extra home and share it with their friends, etc.  But the funny part is that when the company changed from wooden casks to metal casks, they broke down all the wood for recycling and found the #1 casks weren’t as thick as the other casks, so they could handle a lot more beer than originally thought!  The wily coopers were taking care of themselves for all those years!

All in all it’s a fascinating tour (and fun – especially when Dave says oh, the marketing people want me to show you this video, but it’s all sales, and I think you know how to identify a Speights beer – it says Speights on the label after all!  Then he turns on the video – and tells us to head out of the room into the next history section!) with tons of info – and really amazingly old vats and kettles and things they are still using today!

		Speights VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Of course the best part of the tour was the tasting!  We were allowed to taste as much as we wanted of 5 different types of beer and 1 cider beer.  I even drank a couple of glasses of gold medal – it was much better than the cider! Very fun – as you can see below – the beermeister is helping himself!

Back out on the street – we pass the back by the original building – gorgeous brick structure….

….and head toward Cadbury!

We’ve got tons of time – it’s only 1:45 – but we decide we really don’t want to do another Cadbury tour – we’ve already done it, and we really just want the candy, which we can buy at their store. So, we stroll a bit and stumble upon the Jury Room Bar – where you can “come in and judge their fine ales and wine”!  Cute – we’re sold!

It’s an adorable little place, with a totally friendly bar proprietor (I think all of New Zealanders are totally friendly!).  We order a mixed platter of calamari, chicken fingers, samosas and spring rolls to share – and the cheapest beer and wine (good wine too!) we’ve had on the trip.  It’s nice to sit after being on our feet so long, and this is a great place to just unwind and hang out in a cute atmosphere.

Back out on the street, we hit Cadbury and buy way too much candy, but you know – it’s so much better than the Cadbury candy in the states! And totally cheap.  These huge bars of chocolate for only 2.50 NZ – which means like $2US.  We supply ourselves and buy a couple extra for our cabin steward and the hostess/maitre’d who takes care of us every night for dinner.

Then onto the grocery store for supplies and back to the Octagon (the main area of town) to catch the shuttle. It’s critical mass in the shuttle line.  Takes us 3 buses before we get on, and we’re in the last seats – but hanging out in the line isn’t unpleasant, it’s really pretty here…

….and there’s free wi-fi and these cute little kids doing song and dance routines from Broadway and the West Side. Smart kids – it’s our last stop in NZ so we are all getting rid of our money – they’ve got a couple hundred in their money tin from working the line.  Back on the bus, we’re on the ship and relaxing, getting ready for sailing the Sounds tomorrow and then 2 full days at sea!

Bye Bye NZ.  We’re sort of sad to be leaving – this is a fabulous country with so much to see and do. And so many lovely friendly people.  We are glad we managed to see and do so much on our excursions!

We are also really glad we have visited here again on a cruise.  There is just no way that we would have been able to see what we have had we not been transported by cruise ship.  The distances are too great (and that is here in New Zealand—OZ is 5 times the size of these 2 islands), plus we would have missed a place like Akaroa, our favorite stop up to this point.  And all this before we enter the Fjordlands National Park tomorrow, which only can be visited by water.