Dunedin Favorite Tips by Kakapo2 Top 5 Page for this destination

Speights – Centre of the Liquor Restriction Area

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You see, I have worked hard to find the right angle to get this contradiction into a photo: a sign which shows that you are in an area where it is not allowed to drink alcohol in the open, and the Speights Brewery in the middle of it.

Such Liquor Restriction Areas are common in all cities in New Zealand. In Dunedin the bylaw that prohibited the consumption of alcohol in public places was introduced on 8 July 2004. It applies to the central city and can be extended to further zones to prevent expected mayhem, as is the case in the student quarters of North Dunedin, especially on the occacion of the so-called Undie 500 (will post a text about this later in Local Customs).

As you can deduct from the wording “in public places” you can still drink alcolhol in inner city pubs and restaurants. In the case of the Speights Brewery which is located in Rattray Street, this means that you can drink their beer in their premises but not in front of the brewery.

You are also allowed to carry alcohol you have just bought through the area as long as it is in an unopened container. Meaning: You can go to a bottle shop, buy alcohol, and carry it back home or to your accommodation and consume it there. And you can take your wine to an unlicensed restaurant (BYO = Bring Your Own).

Be aware of the danger of opening a bottle of wine, beer or whatever in an inner city street. You might receive a fine of up to NZ$ 20,000. (But normally they only arrest you ;-))))

If the ban applies to evenings, nights or weekends only, the specific times of the ban are noted on the signs. This is not the case in Dunedin.

The “Control of Liquor in Public Places Bylaw” came into effect after research showed that most arrests and disturbances were alcohol-related, and 75 to 80 per cent of the offences occurred after 7pm. Its main purposes are to protect the public from nuisance and minimising the potential for offensive behaviour in public places. A side-effect would be the protection, promotion and maintenance of public health and safety.

Those Chimps are hilarious

Favorite thing: I do not really know why they show this little film at the Otago Settlers Museum – perhaps because it is part of the history of transportation in New Zealand. But to me, although it surely is the least serious thing you will encounter in the museum, it is the funniest display of all. In fact, when I first discovered it I enjoyed the film so much that I watched it twice in a row, and would probably have watched it a third time, had my husband not asked me if I wanted to spend the whole day glued to the TV screen ;-) On following visits to Dunedin I went to the museum most times just to watch this film, and also introduced it to friends this way.

The film is about teaching children how to behave in traffic on the roads, and Kiwi children grew up with it in the 1950’s.

As I did not live in NZ at the time (and not at all in this world yet LOL) I enjoyed it 50, well, nearly 60 years later, and will enjoy it again on my next visit of the museum. If you are only a little childish you will surely love the film as well. (I am very childish, travelling with toy animals like Kimi the Bear… ;-)

The film is titled “Pedal Power” and is from about 1950. They showed it as an episode of a series named “Monkey Tale”. It was made for the Ministery of Transport and Road Safety by the National Film Unit.

The series used chimpanzee actors to demonstrate good and bad practices on the road. They acted as a family, with school children in the centre of attention, getting up in the morning, having breakfast served by chimp mommy. Then they went to school nicely dressed. At the start the chimp named Charley behaved like a m0r0n on his bicycle, getting into dangerous situations, annoying other road users. Then a policeman taught him how to behave, and then the whole daily routine started again with a reformed Charlie, using his bike in a responsible way, he and his chimp sister in her nice dress looking to the left and to the right before crossing the road, giving a sign with the hand before turning, and stop when the policeman at the intersection gives the sign. And so on.

The comment is in this immaculate artificial sounding British English as it used to be in TV times long gone by. This adds to the amusement – at least to mine ;-)

At the time, the films of Monkey Tale were taken out to schools by traffic officers, and a generation of pupils laughed at the antics of Charley and his family. At the same time they learned valuable lessons on road safety.

The performing chimpanzees were from Auckland Zoo and were trained by a Mr Horribin who appears in the film as an angry man in a car. At some point the chimps retired to Orewa Marineland. There they performed their bike rides well into the 1960’s.

Admission to the museum is free.

Location:
The Otago Settlers Museum is next to the Railway Station. If you face the Railway Station it is to your right, just past the carpark.

More information:

http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/otago-settlers-museum

Photo 2 shows me glued to the TV screen, watching the chimps cycling and a policeman getting mad.

Impressive Students’ Toilets

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As you might know, I am amazed that in New Zealand you find public toilets anywhere, even in the middle of nowhere. To a certain extent this includes the state of those toilets.

Those, as you can only recognise on photo 3, are the men’s toilet at the students hall of Otago University in Cumberland Street. Although I dare to use men’s toilets in urgent cases I did not cross the limit there. But hubby was so impressed that he photographed them, so I could have an indirect look at them :-)

On photo 3 you will realise that if the guys only want to pee and stand at the pissoirs, they have to do it in front of a shark with its mouth wide open and displaying its mighty teeth.

I think they have fantasies about this, as the fish graffiti on photo 4 might prove ;-) I also think that some of the primitive scribblings and tags on the doors and walls of the single cubicles might have been executed by young students who spend the first year of their studies in Dunedin in a state of drunkeness ;-)