Today Dunedin is a thriving student town, which suited our backpacker budget – we had cheap bento for lunch and very reasonably priced haircuts. We spent a couple of hours at the Otago Museum, famous for its Victorian-era natural history section, which has recently been restored to its former glory, complete with cabinets of taxidermied animals and insects pinned onto boards. It reminded us a lot of a miniature version of London's Natural History Museum. The building lies on the edge of the university complex, meaning we could pretend to be students for an hour or two, although we probably didn't look trendy enough, especially in our matching jackets!

We had a quick wander around the Edwardian railway station (it looks like Bristol's) and admired the purple and white branding of the Cadbury factory, but the main objective of our visit was the Speight's Brewery. Speight's is the South Island's premier beer, known as the 'Pride of the South,' marketed with some tongue-in-cheek 'real man' adverts. The factory was fantastic – all original Victorian mouldings and brewing apparatus, still in use today, over 130 years after Speight's first started brewing (in 1878). Bizarrely it reminded me of the old science labs at Denmark Road School – I kept expecting to see Mrs Gibson popping out from somewhere, brandishing a test tube. But the best bit was the tastings at the end of the tour, where we were able to pour our own glasses of each of the beers on tap. It's clear I've never been a barmaid, but I got there in the end. Our favourite was the 'Empire' winter special brew: judging by our circuitous route home, we probably enjoyed a little too much of it......