Chocolate & Beer!

In Dundedin at the moment, spending an extra day here to explore and visit the chocolate factory and the brewery. but first milford sound and Steward Island. got the very early bus after a bad nights sleep (of course i was grumpy) in Queenstown, and drove down to Milford Sound. a scary drive down the mountain and then a 'cruise' around the sound not seeing very much due to the fog and rain. apparently its on one of the wettest places in the world, so not surprising that we couldn't see anything. were entertained by Keas, some parrot type green birds who were loving to rip the rubber off cars and were very cheeky. then we stayed at a small town called Tuatapere for the night, the others getting up to go for a farm tour in the morning, which i decided i'd already see enough sheep/cows in dorset so i had a lie in. We then got on the ferry to stay the night on Stewart Island, the relatively big island at the very tip of the south island. not many people live there but a good place for wildlife, and some fantastic beaches. on the afternoon walk out to the light house we saw a fur seal just metres away having a sunbathe on the beach.
yesterday we got back on the ferry, not quite as lumpy as the day before thak goodness, and drove to Dunedin, stopping off on the way for some 'wildlife walks' including one to see a colony of fur seals, elephant seals, sea lions and yellow eyed penguins all living together. this area, the catlins, is lovely, deserted golden beaches and fantastic wildlife.
arrive in dunedin late and went immediately for the Speights brewery tour after which (the best bit) we did some tasting, which included pouring your own beer. a lovely new beer they've got out for summer was harvest, an apricot beer which tastes similar to Badger Champion, if anyone's had that. lovely.
left the brewery and of course had to continue tasting in the brewery bar next door.
This morning there were a few people staying on so we visited the chocolate factory, which is right in the centre of town. an amazing tour seeing loads of things and getting lots of free chocolate to try. i answered 2 questions the tour guide had asked correctly and was given 2 more chocolate fish (these are marshmallow fish covered in chocolate) much to everyone elses envy. the smell of chocolate as we went round was amazing, we all decided we wanted to work there. i did ask why the chocolate here doesn't taste the same as back home she reckons the milk is fresher but i thing thats bollocks as it doesn't taste as good out here. of course i didn't say that. but the discussions we've been having (it seems to come up all the time in conversations with backpackers!) was that it was because they put an extra ingredient in to protect it from the heat. lots of cheap chocolate to buy in the shop at the end, i bought some pineapple lumps, which i have never seen anywhere else which are a weird combination of pineapple chewy stuff covered in chocolate, its a weird combination but it somehow works.
right better go we have more of Dunedin to explore, hopefully something a bit cheaper than a brewery and a chocolate factory!
see you later
ps only a week left in NZ!