Pride of the South

We had our Butler catch-up dinner Thursday night, which included a little sightseeing tour around the city and a tour of the historic Speight's Brewery - the 'Pride of the South.'

The first stop on the bus tour was at the top of Signal Hill, just north of the city.
Looking out to the left and across the center is the Otago Peninsula, just across the Otago Harbour. Over the peninsula is the Pacific Ocean. The city itself is in the right-center of the photo. After this stop, we drove out and around the city in the hills, getting a few more nice views as it got dark.

Next up was the Speight's Brewery. It's pretty old - it's been in the same building since 1876. It's what they call a 'gravity brewery,' so they take all the raw materials to the top floor and they get processed more and more as they move down, until you get the finished product at the bottom. One of the cool things about the brewery is that they only make one beer at a time, starting a batch at 2 am and finishing it in one day. The next time, they can make one of their other 5 beers.

Of course, the best part of the tour was the sampling. We went into a room on the ground floor (which would be the 1st floor in the States) and basically formed a loop circling around a small bar with 6 taps - one for each of the beers that Speight's produces. And as long as a DVD of Speight's played in the background on the TVs, we were free to refill to our hearts' desire. So in the span of just a couple weeks, I've learned how wine and beer are both made, and how to appreciate them. Life is good, eh?

Even better, after the tour, we got free food! At the same time I signed up for a couple trips that Butler is doing for the students on their program here, so in August we'll take the Taieri Gorge Railway to Central Otago (Dunedin is in the eastern part of the Otago region), where we'll do some mountain biking and also play the most exciting sport known to man, curling! In September I'll be going to Milford Sound in Fiordland National Park for a weekend cruise and kayaking, so that just may be the best thing ever.