Kiwi chocoholic street racers in charity roll
20 Jul 2009
Sweet-toothed Kiwis rolled out one of the world’s most unusual charity events on Friday (17.07.09) when 30,000 Jaffas - an iconic New Zealand sweet - hurtled down the world’s steepest street, in the South Island city of Dunedin.
A New Zealand and Australian favourite since 1931, Cadbury Jaffas are small round balls of orange candy-coated chocolate. Kiwis consume around 46 million of the little red balls each year - that’s over 10 times the population.
Baldwin Street
School holiday crowds lined the street to witness the wacky event - all over in just a few moments - as a mighty wave of red balls bounced, clattered and burst their way down Baldwin Street’s 35 percent gradient.
Baldwin Street is officially recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s steepest street. At one point, Baldwin Street rises by one metre for every 2.8 metres travelled horizontally.
"It was like a sea of red quickly sweeping down Baldwin Street - only in Dunedin!" one race-goer commented.
Individual labels
Each Jaffa was individually-labelled and the winning sweet made it to the bottom of the street in 24 seconds, rewarding its owner with a $1000 grocery voucher. Other prizes included a petrol voucher, gift card, mobile phone and a Cadbury chocolate hamper.
The race raised a record $86700 for charity.
Dunedin Cadbury Chocolate Carnival
The annual Jaffa race is part of the Dunedin Cadbury Chocolate Carnival, celebrated this year from 11 to 17 July.
A chocolholic’s dream, the carnival programme includes many chocolate-themed family events from classes in chocolate cooking or choc-art sculpting and painting, to a hot chocolate ceremony, chocolate fishing, and chocolate facials.
For the more seriously-minded, there’s even chocology - chocolate therapy - with choc-therapist Murray Langham, owner of Schoc Chocolate (Martinborough) and author of Chocolate Therapy and Hot Chocolate.
Cadbury World
Cadbury World has made confectionary in Dunedin for more than 70 years, and is New Zealand’s major chocolate producer.
The working factory is open to the public taking visitors behind the scenes to sample chocolate products and view treats such as a chocolate fall housed in a five storey silo.
More information:
Dunedin - Coastal Otago
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