Albatross and Beer

Early bed and early to rise makes a man bleary and red in the eyes.  Early we were as we wound our way up the Otago Peninsula and out to Taiaroa Head on our Albatross pilgrimage.  We'd visited the Royal Albatross Centre last time we were in Dunedin (Xmas 2008) and wanted to revisit the site.  This is the only mainland nesting site in the world for the Northern Royal Albatross, a huge bird (wingspan 3 m +, body 1.2 m +) and there are roughly 130 birds nesting there.

Taiaroa Head has a long history.  It was settled by the Maori as a fortified village known as Pukekura.  Then it became a fort to defend Dunedin's harbour in the late 1800s (remembering that Dunedin was New Zealand's largest city at that time and the Russians were coming or so they thought) and finally it has become a nature reserve for albatrosses and other wildlife.

In the latter stages of  the drive to the head, we passed a gentleman walking purposefully up the road.  Fi thought he was going to the Albatrosses, I thought he was indulging in the NZ pastime of walking up and down hills. 

It was cold and windy when we got to Taiaroa Head, but at least it wasn't swathed in cloud (as our guide assured us it had been the day before).  The gentleman whom we had passed earlier then arrived, and was in fact, on the same tour as us (guess who was wrong).  Chris was a Mancunian now resident in London, and was also making a second pilgrimage to the albatrosses.

Southern cliffs of Taiaroa Head:
home to seals, shags and kelp

This is not really the best season to view the birds, as they are nest building, which takes them on long journeys away from the Head to pick up suitable material.  This is done by the male of the pair (they mate for life) and is the avian equivalent of nipping down to Bunnings for screws, wood, tools, etc.  We are told that after the constructing a nest, the female will examine it and if it doesn't embody the principles from the latest series of avian Grand Designs, she will destroy the nest and the poor bloke has to go down to Bunnings and start again.  It seems some characteristics are common across species!

Spotted shag nests -
but don't roll over in your sleep

Anyway, we started our tour with a brief film (that contained information such as in the previous paragraph) before heading out to look at some of the other inhabitants of the area.  Gazing from the cliffs, we saw seals, spotted shags nesting in the most precarious positions and 5979 of the 6016 red beaked gulls that live on the head.  While at the cliffs, we caught a brief glimpse of an albatross cruising above.

Then we climbed  up to the observation post and caught a couple of glimpses of an albatross, but none were nesting nearby.  We need to come between December and June to get the best viewing.

We gave Chris a lift back to town and lunched together on blue cod, chips and tea at the Best Cafe.  Chris was going on the Taieri Gorge railway excursion in the afternoon, so we agreed to meet up again when he got back at 6:30 pm.

Early Egyptian temperance message

We, on the other hand, we were booked on the Speights Brewery Tour at 2 pm.  The Speights Brewery has been on the site since 1867.  It is all part of Lion Nathan now, but their Golden Ale is still the South Island's biggest selling beer.  Interestingly enough, they got a head start by sending two barrels of beer to Melbourne in 1891 to an international beer festival and won first and second prize.  That gave them the kudos to become the South Island's biggest brewery.  The tour is well worth going on and includes the Gyle Room, where the speciality beers are still fermented in the three of the original karri brewing gyles.

The chimney at the brewery has a barrel as an ornament at the top.  Apparently this was a result of the architect leaving his drawings out on his desk when he went home for the weekend.  An apprentice sketched the barrel on the top of the chimney as a joke and the sketches were presented to the brewery without being checked.  Mr Speight loved the barrel and so it was built!

The Gyle room with brewing beer and karri gyles

The water for brewing comes from a spring directly under the brewery and you can still fill up your own containers at a tap by the brewery door.  On a certain day at the start of April some years ago, an article appeared in the Otago Daily Times stating that the tap was now connected to a beer vat rather than the spring and the resulting queue stretched around the block before people realised it was an April Fool's joke.

The brewing floor

Mike in the tasting room

After visiting many rooms, heady with the smell of hops, malt and brewing beer and the sight of gleaming copper vats, we ended up in the tasting room, where we could sample six of the Speight's brews for about half an hour.  A big thanks to Hamish, who was a great tour guide and very happy to talk about beer, any beer, at great length.




 We had a couple of hours to kill before Chris got off his train, so we returned to Albar.  It was Friday afternoon and it soon filled up with locals coming in for a beer after work.  I picked Chris up from the station and we introduced him to the Albar and the Renaissance IPA.  After some time spent discussing, beer, rugby and the problems of the world, we hopped in the car and tried to get into Starfish for dinner. Fat chance! Starfish was bulging at the seams, so we headed back to the centre of town and managed to get a meal at the Nova Cafe in the Octagon.  We then said our farewells to Chris and headed home. 

Tomorrow is the first of the semifinals!  For those of you with a taste for coincidences, the four semifinalists for RWC 2011 are exactly the same as those for the inaugural RWC in 1987, which is also the last time it was held in NZ.  However, last time, France defeated Australia and New Zealand defeated Wales, so coincidence only stretches so far.  It will be off to Pirates tomorrow night to support Wales, before the test of friendship on Sunday when the Wallabies meet the All Blacks.