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Day 202 and I had a really bad nights sleep due to it being freezing. Helen went to sleep with about 4 layers on and my beanie hat. Burns drove us to a car park early doors and we bumped into Dale and Adam, 2 lads we had met way back in Brisbane. Burns was keen to have a cooked breakfast so Luke, Burns and I all had a $10 cooked breakfast while the girls had food in the camper. After breakfast we wandered to the Botanical Gardens to finish off our Frisbee Golf back 9. It seemed a lot easier and quicker this time and we were done within an hour. We then walked through town and played some pool in the sports bar. After a beer here we did a small food shop and then bumped into Dale and Adam again. They showed us their Spaceship camper which was pretty small (especially as they are both over 6 foot and pretty big). They were amazed at ours, mainly because they could stand up inside, and by the chairs, toilet and other facilities we have probably been taking for granted. For dinner we had Fajitas and Dale and Adam came in on us eating. The look on Dale's face was priceless. They had been eating instant noodles and tuna for the last 3-4 weeks, and there was us with fajitas, mince, and even a salad bowl. They looked a bit annoyed actually. After dinner we went to the Red Rock pub in town to play some cards and just have a bit of a chat. I had a beer, and the others between them (6 of them) had 2 cokes and a lemonade. We introduced them to P&A and also Billionaire, which they were a bit sceptical of to start with. By about 11 we headed back to the camper and drove to a layby which Dale and Adam showed us where we stayed for the night.
Day 203 and I was woken by Dale knocking on our door at 8am. Adam was doing a bungy and Dale was going to watch so they had to leave early. Our plan of getting up at 8 and driving to a campsite to use their showers didn抰 quite happen, and after saying goodbye to the lads, we stayed in bed till 9ish. We had told Dale and Adam about using the showers in the Top 10 campsite for free, so they went off to do that before we went. The showers were good as we expected, but on my way out, I must have been followed by a campsite employee because 2 minutes later back in the camper someone knocked on the door and said he knew what we were doing and we had to pay up. He only thought that I had showered luckily (the girls were hiding in the shower with their wet hair) and I'm amazed he didn't pick up on all the hanging towels. He charged me $20, which I took out of the group money pot, and said we were lucky he didn't pass our licence plate onto other campsites. He also said he had caught 3 other people doing the same thing earlier in the morning. I instantly knew that poor old Dale and Adam would have been charged for the showers after listening to our suggestion. We quickly left Queenstown and headed towards Dunedin. I slept in the upstairs bed for the journey. Lunch was a BLT with cheese in the camper and we then booked our Cadbury World and Speights Brewery tours. As there is no freedom camping in Dunedin we searched for somewhere to stay overnight. We found a car park by a dock, and also spent nearly an our driving down a long windy road which turned out to be a dead end. Back in the City Burns and I found out that Liverpool and Arsenal drew 4-4! I didn抰 actually believe him when he said it from his PC. Helen was craving Chinese for dinner, and this simple suggestion converted us all to look for somewhere to eat out. After lots of looking we decided on an Indian. It cost us about $15 for a curry and a naan bread which was good value as the food was awesome. Luke and Laura were feeling tired and had headaches so they headed back to the camper, while Helen Burns and I didn抰 want to go back early so we went to The Ra Bar to play some pool. We even played a game of scrabble which Burns felt was geeky but I thought was quite nice (beer, live music and scrabble made for a good atmosphere). At 11ish we drove to the dock area and at one point were driving on a train line with a train on it, all be it, going very slowly and away from us.
Day 204 and I was woken by the train line by our camper, and the noise of the dock yard. Our Cadbury World tour was at 1030 so we drove into the city and parked up. I didn抰 have breakfast as I knew we would probably be getting plenty of chocolate. I was hoping it to be something similar to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with a guide like Willy Wonka. It wasn't. We had to wear hairnets on the tour when walking through the factory. Burns got a special 'Snood' for his beard, which was a hairnet, but in the shape of a face mask. His beard is now massive as he hasn't had a shave in about a month. The tour guide even called him, 'The Dude with The Snood'. He seemed to quite like it. The tour made me feel like I was back at school, with the questions and walking around following a guide. The guide herself kept asking the children on the tour questions and whenever they got it right she would give them chocolate bars. At one point when everyone got some freebies, Helen and Luke snuck back and took a couple more from the bowls. At the end of the tour we all bought some chocolate (it was inevitable really) and then walked back to the camper. After some lunch we drove to Baldwin Street, which is officially The Steepest Street in the World. It looked very steep and only when you started striding up it did I realise how steep. At the top we all got some photos of us lying down, trying to do the steepness justice. After this we drove back to town and went on the free internet at the Library. Dinner was Pasta with Tuna and afterwards we headed back to The Ra Bar where we all played pool and scrabble. At one point this really weird guy came up and challenged Luke and I to a game. We beat him which was pleasing as he was really arrogant, smelt of BO badly and was telling us how he was Mauri. He seemed surprised when Luke told him he couldn't speak Mauri. On the drive back to the car park, Laura was telling Helen that she reckoned she could be a heart surgeon (as well as all the other jobs she wants to do). Needless to say, Helen wasn't too impressed.
Day 205 and Luke drove us to Countdown supermarket really early and we bought some Milk before driving to a campsite on the other side of the city. We did the usual thing of telling the campsite there was only 4 of us, parked up and we all had showers straight away. The girls took ages straightening their hair before we got the bus into the city centre for our Brewery Tour at 2. The Brewery Tour from the start seemed miles better than the Cadbury one. The guide was much easier to listen to, and the history of Speights Beer much more interesting. He told us that workers used to get given 23 litres of beer a day as a thank you for working at Speights. And the beer was 9% in those days. Apparently most workers sold it on. Another interesting fact was that people judged beer not on its taste, but what it was like to sit in. The judge would wear leather trousers and white undergarments and sit in some beer for 30 minutes. After that time, he would judge it on how well it seeped through the trousers and its warmth. Pretty weird. The term 'To Skull' a pint (same as chug or neck) came from the Vikings, who when they killed someone in battle, would behead them, clean out their skull, and then drink from it. This was seen as good luck, and the term 'To Skull' was born. Another fact is the term 'booze' and 'boozer' comes from an Egyptian word when talking about alcohol. The brewery was infested with rats in the early days so the company bought cats to get rid of them. This caused another problem, kittens. Soon the brewery was infested with them and they would often be given strong beer to drink and they would then fall asleep and not be a pest. At the end of the tour we got 30 minutes to try as much of the 6 varieties of Speights as we liked. The girls weren't to keen on the beers in general, I liked them all to be honest, even the dark ales which tasted like coffee. Burns was rubbish at pouring from the taps and had to get Helen to pour him one. After all the beer we were all hungry so had lunch and then headed back to the campsite. Burns and I had 20 minutes to layer up as we were heading out to see a Super 14 Rugby game. The others would end up going to the cinema. It was a cold bus drive and walk to the stadium. We even saw players walking outside the ground, not being harassed by fans. We couldn't imagine any premiership footballers being able to walk around without being asked for an autograph. In the ground we watched some 7's rugby and had a few beers. By the time kick-off came, the terrace we were in was packed and had a really good atmosphere. There were some students shirtless who must have been freezing, but they got on the big screen so they seemed pleased. The game itself was very scrappy which eventually saw the Stormers (from South Africa) beat the Highlanders (from New Zealand) 18-11. On the way home we stopped in a sports bar and had a couple of beers as the others wouldn't be back till around midnight. We both got a pizza on the walk back; Burns ate all 8 slices before we got back! We were in bed by midnight and with the heater on, for once we were not cold.
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