Day 6 September 20, 2010 From Coastal land of the Scotts, to Mountain Cromwell

This morning was pack-up time for us, which was sad as we had much more to explore of Dunedin. Our first stop was the historic Dunedin Railway station to park the van cheaply. Parking is cheap at Dunedin, but finding a suitable space for 6+ metre van is difficult. We took an opportunity to look around the turn of 20^th Century railway station. Apparently it is the most photographed structure after the Sydney Opera house in the southern hemisphere.

The main purpose of our return trip to Dunedin city centre was to tour the Cadbury Chocolate Factory which was much to Charlotte and Jacqueline’s delight. The tour took 45 minutes, which was interesting and more importantly we got samples of the factory’s production by answering questions asked by our guide. The girls did very well leaving through the Factory’s gift shop (of course) loaded down with prizes.

We did a brief re-stock of our food at NZ’s version of woolies after the tour. NZ’s foods prices are a fraction of ours back in Australia. Their houses, food and cars are all much cheaper without factoring in the exchange. One wonders….

We began our 3 1/2 hour trip inland to Cromwell, first travelling south to Milton, then turning inland to Cromwell. NZ’s mountains and valleys are clustered with little hamlets and towns. It makes for eventful trip with snow covered peaks, deep valleys, lakes, and grazing sheep along a tree lined mountain road. Overall very pleasant to see, in fact one wonders why any New Zealander would ever want grace Australia’s shores with a visit.