Christchurch to Dunedin

A Shower and a strong coffee got me up and going this morning and I decided to drive down to Dunedin with is much further down the East Coast of the South Island. The road was good for most of the way being a single road with passing sections every 5km or so. They also have little private cafes along the way and many of these offer free coffee to drivers – all you have to do is sign the log sheet on the counter. Eventually after about 5 hours (I didn't realise it was that far) I got into Dunedin and called about 6 different hostels before I found one that had vacancies, luckily it was just around the corner from where I had parked up. The Manor Backpackers was an old rambling big Victorian House well suited to a hostel. I took a walk down into the town as I had read there was a Brewery in town and not one to miss a good pint?!? I went in search... Speights is just on the edge of the town centre on a hill and is built in the classic mill style of northern British brewery. There was a tour but it was booked up for this day so I went next door the the Speight's Ale House. The huge cavernous room was obviously once a warehouse for the brewery but had been 'tarted up' with lots of fake mash tuns and all things brewing, I spied they did a tasting rack of beers so I ordered one of those and these are the results
Golden Tasteless and bland, fizzy pop
Pale Ale Light beer as expected but little taste and gassy
Summit Light and fruity an nice summer beer
Wheat Beer Strong Apricot flavors and clear not cloudy
Old Dark A deep red beer with some hoppieness still gassy
Porter Burnt hops and dark chocolate bitterness
The Porter was about the best of the lot and I would class it more of a Black Lager than a porter, all the beers were what I would call a lager rather than an Ale, apparently though the Golden Ale was a cask and the others were all Nitro-Kegs not that you could tell! I was happy with the Porter though and ordered a huge platter of meats, cheese and pickles which also came with a whole mini loaf. Suitably stuffed I wandered back to the hostel