Episode 92 Dunedin Vegans Rock!
1m National Animal Rights Conference 2013, held in Wellington!
5m We're number 13! New Zealand Equal Marriage
10m siren song in Portobello
11m Chelsea Slobbe interview, nationally televised baker, and she's VEGAN! Chelsea's "Chocolate Pineapple Upside Down Cake" is currently the highest rated recipe of all, well done! What an advocate for Veganism!
21m "Circadian Rhythm", Vegetarian Cafe in Dunedin. We spoke with owner Sue
24m Baldwin Street, worlds steepest!
28m "The Joyful Vegan" interview, amazing Vegan food stall at the Otago Farmers Market. Truly worldclass Vegan food
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Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals iTunes link
Hello and welcome to episode 92 of Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals, "Dunedin Vegans Rock!"
This episode, Jen and I travelled north to the city of Dunedin. Three times the size of Invercargill, there are vegan friendly businesses as far as the eye can see! Doubly so if you're near sighted and situated right in front of "The Joyful Vegan" :-)
Before we relive our trip to Dunedin, there will be another Animal Rights Conference this year in New Zealand! Jenny and I have already booked our plane tickets to the capital city of Wellington in the North Island, and are very excited. Its scheduled for late July, three months away. We can't wait!
You can hear my trip to the 2011 National Animal Rights Conference in Auckland in Episode 61, "Auckland Antics". I'll include a link in this episodes show notes. It feels so long ago, but I still sound the same. Lecturing, Demanding, Whining, Monotoning :-)
Lecturing, Demanding, Whining, Monotoning - two years on and I've still got it!
And speaking of vocal lesbians! Last night New Zealand voted to be the thirteenth country in the world to have equal marriage rights. I'm thrilled for all my gay and lesbian friends, honestly, I'll never forget where I was at the moment Parliament gave equal marriage rights to all New Zealanders, Heterosexual and Homosexual alike. I was in bed with Jen…….. eating Indian takeaway food (Chana Masala and Onion Bhaji with rice) while watching The Breakfast Club. Its a great story to tell our children. "You see son, on that historic night, your old ma and pa were in bed watching a movie from the 1980's! The Breakfast Club, with Molly Ringwald! And you know who else was huge in the 80's? Yes, Michael Jackson, wow!"
I'll never forget, and I'm so glad that New Zealand is now lucky 13th in the world. This years Animal Rights Conference is being held in Wellington, not Auckland. Perhaps this year, the lesbian couple who keep us up all night will be legally married! Hotel rooms will always have paper thin walls, but at least in terms of human rights, we're making some progress!
Heres the moment the bill was passed
And here is a fantastic speech from a Centre Right politician. Maurice Williamson. I'm a Green Party supporter, but regardless of politics, this speech is bloody awesome! Its been heard around the world, much like Cats the musical :-)
Well done Maurice Williamson, and well done New Zealand!
Ok, onwards and upwards, lets drive 200 kilometres north to the wonderful city of Dunedin!
Jenny and I had a lovely time. We went through the main city, and a couple small towns in surrounding bays.
During our visit to Portebello, I spotted a fantastic Dr Who letterbox. As I took some photos to share with friends on Facebook who love the tv series, a freaking siren went off!
I've never really watched Dr Who, but I don't think the ear splitting siren was related to the letterbox. Jen claims its for volunteer firefighters, but I reckon that Portebello is not particularly Vegan friendly, and we had been detected! Either they hate animal rights activists, or they hate people from Invercargill, take your pick!
But you know somewhere that LOVES Vegans, and tolerates people from Invercargill visiting for a weekend? Dunedin.
Dunedin has many examples of fine Vegan food. In fact, theres recently been a competition here in New Zealand to share your favourite recipe, and a Dunedin Vegan is currently in the lead!
I managed to interview Chelsea Slobbe about her Upside Down Pineapple Cake, which happens to be Vegan! As a featured recipe on the website, Chelsea stars in television ads demonstrating her recipe. This video is seen each week during primetime television, its an EXCELLENT form of Vegan activism!
How awesome is that? I found out about Dunedin vegan Chelsea Slobbe just after we left Dunedin, but don't fret loyal listeners, I've still managed to interview her through the wonders of Skype :-)
Thank you very much for your time Chelsea!
Staying with the letter C, after hearing from Chelsea, lets check in at Circdian Rhythm, a great Vegetarian cafe with many Vegan options. I spoke with Circadian Rhythm owner Sue:
While at Circadian Rhythm, we met New Zealand hero to the animals Carl Scott, the main in a cage. Carl locked himself in a cage for a month to protest animal welfare conditions in New Zealand.
Ok, so we know Dunedin has superb Vegan food, but what else do you do when visiting the city of Dunedin? I mean, you've jumped on a plane and flown from London, or Los Angeles, or Laos, or Lithuania, or Liberia, or Libya, or Luxembourg……and flown 20 odd hours to get to Dunedin, New Zealand. You haven't just come for a fantastic Chocolate Pineapple Upsidedown Cake, right? I mean, its TOTALLY awesome, and was a huge hit at the last Invercargill Vegan Society potluck, but we all know the reason you make the pilgrimage to Dunedin. To climb the worlds steepest street!
Baldwin Street, Dunedin. And it really is very, very, very steep! Almost every part of Dunedin city seems to be perched on a hill, and Baldwin Street is the steepest residential street in the world :-)
Hey Julie, hows it going? You good? Awesome, lovely to see you Julie Gunn of Wellington! Ha, my friend Julie has a radio show called "Animal Rights and Wrongs". The last two episodes in a row she's mentioned me by name. Heres the last incident, hearing this at during a lunch break at work, I was so surprised I nearly choked on a Marmite sandwich! The voice in my head was talking to me! Whispering in my ear, totally surreal it was!
So tell me about that nasty rash Julie, you have a WHAT on your WHERE? A nasty boil on your bottom, that needs to be lanced? UGH! Why are you sharing this with us Julie? Huh, you've got a top secret crush on Tom at your work? Well, I better stop this one sided conversation right now, before you tell us your Facebook password is "pimple bum julie loves tom", all hyphenated! Tricky to type out on a phone, but probably more secure than my Facebook password, jordan1234!
Last but certainly not least, we visited "The Joyful Vegan" Each Saturday at the Otago Farmers Market theres a great food stall called "The Joyful Vegan". Its a caravan, selling food, with massive lines and a dining area at the back… AND ITS ALL VEGAN!
Boy, The Joyful Vegan was just amazing! I just had to ask Tanya for an interview!
Thank you to everyone we visited in Dunedin! Thank you to "The Joyful Vegan", thank you to "Circadian Rhythm", thank you to Vegan friendly cafe "Modaks", thank you to Carl Scott, thank you to the siren that blared at us in Portebello, thank you to the geniuses that built Baldwin Street at such an insanely steep angle…..thank you to Chelsea Slobbe for sharing her great VEGAN recipe on national television……thank you to all the vegans in Dunedin!
We drove home with hundreds of photos, and fond memories.
And thank YOU, yes you, be you Julie Gun or someone very special who I haven't met yet, thank YOU for listening :-)
You can find the script for this episode, as well as downloads for every episode of Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals at www.coexisting.co.nz
If you want to contact me, I'd really love to hear from YOU, please send me an email to info@invsoc.org.nz
I'm also on Facebook and Twitter, Jordan Wyatt, W Y A T T and please, "like" our groups, Invercargill Vegan Society, and Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals.
Thank you for listening, I hope to to visit Dunedin with you one day, or perhaps I'll see you at the Animal Rights Conference in late July!
Sources
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New Zealand Equal Marriage!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10878223
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10878223
Our March 2013 Dunedin trip!
Hen Home Renovation! We sent the Hen Home door around New Zealand, gaining autographs from Vegans who look after chickens! We collected the door from Carl Scott, at the "Circadian Rhythm" vegetarian cafe in Dunedin :-)
Carl Scott Interview, 2011
National Animal Rights Conference 2011, "Episode 61 Auckland Antics"
Chelsea Slobbe, national televised Vegan baker! Her Chocolate Pineapple Upside Down Cake" is currently the highest rated recipe, and she appears in a tv ad!
Chelsea's personal website, "Healthy Chelsea" :-)
Baldwin Street, Dunedin city, New Zealand. The Steepest Residential Street In The World!
This episode was also interesting to read as the previous were.
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