Honeymoon: Snow, boulders and the worlds steepest street

Sadly, the Wedderburn Inn is how not to run a B&B, we were hurried into our room, no explanation, then felt out of place walking through the lounge to get to the bar. The shared bathroom ran out of toilet roll, there was an annoying buzzing sound every few minutes, then in the morning the breakfast items were just left out for us to help ourselves. We had no idea what time checkout was etc. We were glad to leave. Surprisingly, it had snowed overnight! The hills had quite thick snow. Since going on the scenic mail run, we have turned into mailbox spotters too! 

Our first stop was Naseby, twinned with Naseby in Northamptonshire. It would fit in very nicely in a country and western video, with a drapers, watchmakers, masonic hall etc. The library is open 2 days a week for a couple of hours. You can really imagine the town growing in the gold rush. 

We travelled on to the Moeraki boulders, spherical balls of rocks exposed on the beach. There are a lots of them, but very little explanation on how they were forms. One boulder has cracked and you can see inside, it’s hallow! The site is a honeypot, tourists everywhere. 

By chance, we passed a cheese factory so we popped in for a cheese tasting and bought some Evansdale cheese. Lucky we don’t have cheese tasting places in the UK! What a temptation! 

We then visited Baldwin Street, the worlds steepest street and oh my gosh, it was seriously steep but we got to the top, and even overtook some people. However, we were also overtaken by people running up! As we got to the bottom, we saw two boys run to the top, so Ali followed them up but had to do it in 3 stints. There was no chance I was going up the hill again. 

Our accommodation tonight couldn’t have come too soon, it has internet, our own bathroom, a kitchen and a laundry!!!! We are almost human again.

In the evening we visited the Speights brewery for an excellent tour which started in a ‘titanic style’ lift to the top floor, then a journey through history including how Captain Cook used ale to prevent scurvy. Then the raw materials room, the brewing room which was brewing at the time. You could smell a sweet malt and hops throughout the tour. We then had free reign of the bar, and tasted 5 of their beers. Many thanks to Jermiane and Steve for our visit.