Daily at 6am from a Small City
Discovering small towns, forgotten points of interest and the everyday curiosities of my island home.
The Great KitKat Caper
The other day, while browsing through the local paper, I came across an interesting news story involving twelve tons of Nestlé KitKat chocolate, a delivery truck, and a group of thieves. The story begins in central Italy, where a truck set off on a mission to dispatch a batch of the Swiss company’s new Formula One-branded chocolate treats throughout Europe, only it never arrived at its final destination in Poland. It seems that somewhere en route, both the vehicle and the chocolate simply disappeared. In fact, at the time of writing, they remain unaccounted for. Now, just what someone would do with 413,793 bars of KitKat, I just couldn’t say.
Daily Photo – Queens Gardens and a Building with a Story
I’d been wandering through the various alleyways and short, twisting streets that make up part of the inner city when I came across a cluster of historic buildings sitting just south of Queens Gardens. One of them is known as ‘Queens Garden Court’. The building was originally constructed for the New Zealand Insurance Company, which itself had a rather auspicious beginning.
If there is one thing early colonial towns excelled at, it was catching fire at the most inconvenient moments. Auckland in 1858 was a fine example, when a particularly enthusiastic blaze tore through the settlement and left its residents with little more than ashes and a newfound appreciation for caution.
From this smoky episode came the New Zealand Insurance Company in 1859, courtesy of a group of suddenly risk-aware businessmen. Their timing was impressive. Within two years, branches were appearing across the colony, including Dunedin.
By the 1880s, Dunedin was thriving on gold-fuelled confidence and grand ideas. So when reclaimed harbour land stretching from what is now Queens Gardens toward the Oval became available, the company jumped at the chance to secure some prime real estate. Completed in 1886, the three-storey structure was larger than most of its contemporaries and just as elegant, both inside and out.
