unlike yesterday, today we got up early to make lunch for the train ride and go down to cadbury world for the 9:30am tour. no oompa loompas at cadbury world, sadness. the smell of milk made me a bit sick. had to wear a hair net. felt like laverne and shirley during the opening sequence! got some free candies so it felt like halloween. every time i look at cadbury products here, even the dark chocolate has milk in it. i just couldn't figure out why they'd do that so i only wanted to do the factory tour to figure this out and suggest a true dark product for the dairy intolerant. well, while we were there we learned why and i kept my mouth shut because there's no way they'll ever have a truly dark chocolate. they process the basic cocoa foundation of all their products with milk and store it to be used later.

driving trucks for cadbury

average amount of chocolate eaten per year per person in:
new zealand = 4kg
australia = 8kg
europe = 12kg
north america = 16kg
switzerland = 20kg

after the tour, we walked across the street to the train station. it was a bit wet this morning. hoped it would clear up for the ride. we had lunch in the lobby and saw stephen from the kiwi bus. by coincidence he's riding the train today as well. i went upstairs to view the free art on display at the cleveland gallery. there was a few paintings that took an interesting idea of stitching canvases together and using beeswax for texture.

the taieri gorge railway journey is 58km. we shared a table with an older couple from melbourne. the man looked hard, definitely had the face of a descendant of convicts. the train makes scenic stops along the way and slows down during certain areas so there's plenty of opportunities for photos. only when you have a video camera that's acting all wonky, it's not opportunity enough.

taieri gorge railway

at the turnaround point, we decided to go into the car that stephen is in as it is an older, wooden car. it's more of a romantic setting and that's the whole point in taking this historic train ride. our assigned seat was in a modern car that was much too cold. the a/c was constantly on. stephen's old wooden car had plenty of room and was much warmer. i took a bit of a nap on the return trip.

views of the taieri gorge

going through the taieri gorge is like going through the old american west. rocky terrain, grasses, and small bushes. plus we were on a train, which was just as vital to the growth and development of the american west as it was to parts of new zealand. the other thing both areas share in common is a gold rush.

after the train ride was over i noticed that dunedin sure gets cold after 5pm. it was freezing! i am not made for the cold. too many generations removed from my british and germanic past. just can't handle the cold. when we got back to the hostel, i realized bbh card holders get a 20% discount on the taieri gorge train. big fuckup on my part. i could have really used the savings.