Adult Under Construction: The Edinburgh of the South

This now week-long journey on the South Island was always meant to end in Central Otago for the fruit harvest, where I am now. I did remain in Dunedin for a few days, however, and it had plenty to offer. The presence of the University of Otago means Dunedin bears some resemblance to Kingston, ON (where I went to university) – many of the houses in the downtown area are undeniably student houses, and most cafés provide wireless internet for free. But while Kingston gets overshadowed by Ottawa and Toronto, Dunedin is one of the major cities in New Zealand and thus feels less exclusively like a university town. When I stopped by the tourist office to pick up a map, it was full to bursting with cruise ship passengers and Elton John fans (he performed on Friday). And although I did stop by the university, it was less a destination than a place to wander.

One thing I definitely wanted to see in Dunedin was the Speight's brewery. Being in a country so far from all others, most of the beer here is uniquely Kiwi, but Speight's is probably the most likely to be recognized overseas thanks to its long-running Southern Man ad campaign (for Neil Young fans, that's someone from southern New Zealand, not the U.S.). Being such an iconic brand – and such a tasty beer – I almost felt obligated to take the tour. The Speight's brewery is one of the few remaining gravity-operated breweries in the world, meaning its raw materials are delivered to the top floor and the finished product comes out at the bottom. They also still use wooden vats in the fermentation process, the only remaining brewery in the world to do so. Their location was chosen based on the presence of a spring, which not only makes the beer but is also diverted to a tap on the street and made available to the public. But of course the best part of any brewery tour is the tasting. Although Speight's limits its guests to 30 minutes, they do allow you to pour your own (in fact, they require you to), and they play the Southern Man ad campaign as you do so. If I was designing a brewery tour, I could hardly do better than they have – I believe I owe the folks at Speight's a “good on ya, mate.”

As I wandered around Dunedin, Central Otago was always in the back of my mind. I made sure to buy a new pair of shoes for outdoor work, as well as a rain cover for my pack. I haven't done any farm work yet, but I do know one thing – trying to plan for it in advance is immensely frustrating. Everybody I've spoken to has given me contradictory advice, and potential employers do not seem to hire in advance (for fairly logical reasons). I had long since decided that the solution was simply to be physically present in a region with jobs available, and I was right. I left Dunedin on Sunday afternoon and checked in at Alexandra Backpackers, which was luckily having its cherry season kickoff barbecue as I arrived. I heard even more conflicting reports from other travellers – some had work already, but the general consensus was that because the cherry harvest hasn't yet begun, jobs are hard to come by. Expecting a bit of a wait to find work in Alexandra, I made my way to a seasonal work agency this morning to hopefully make some sense of the situation. Typically of my experience with this job hunt, I was led to believe that there were very few jobs available, and that not having my own transportation would make it much more difficult to find work. I was ready to return to the hostel and settle in for a long stay when I was informed of a job opportunity in Roxburgh, just down the highway. I suppose it makes sense that such a frustrating job search would end so unexpectedly, but at least now I'm employed. And despite the confusion, I have once again managed to turn a vague shadow of a plan into reality, as I did in Wellington. The other foot has yet to drop in New Zealand.