It's the running of the balls

Jaffas hurtle down the world's steepest street. Photo / Otago Daily Times

They rolled. They bounced. They shattered. Thirty thousand Giant Jaffas swept yesterday down the world's steepest road - Baldwin St in Dunedin.

While most made it to their final resting place at the bottom of the hill, others were left by the wayside, having bounced and broken, or simply given up halfway down.

The Cadbury Jaffa Race brought 1500 people to Baldwin St to pay homage to the annual racing of the balls.

The event went off without a hitch as the crowd enjoyed the sunshine, music, a fashion parade, free chocolate and face painting.

A large traffic jam formed as everyone tried to leave at the same time.

Dunedin City Council events co-ordinator Marilyn Anderson described it as "the one and only traffic jam a year in Dunedin".

Free buses from the Octagon were well patronised.

"It's always good to see people take the buses," Mrs Anderson said.

Asked if more free buses would be available next year, she said it would be taken "under advice" after a debriefing next week.

Before the event, concern had been raised about a palm-oil protest following the advertising war over Cadbury's products.

However, the dozen protesters put their message across peacefully.

The group gathered at the bottom of Baldwin St with placards and photos of orang-utans, which they say are threatened by palm-oil production, and distributed information flyers which many of the crowd accepted willingly.

Race tickets were purchased from as far away as Auckland, with numbers 21078, 28266, 27329, 01624 and 09228 coming down, in that order.

Each number produced three winners who received grocery vouchers for first place, petrol vouchers for second, a gift card for third, a cellphone for fourth and a chocolate hamper for fifth.

- OTAGO DAILY TIMES