You Can Race A Jaffa Down The World’s Steepest Street
Baldwin Street in Dunedin, New Zealand, has two remarkable things about it:
1. With a gradient of 19 degrees, it is the world’s steepest residential street.
2. 25,000 Jaffas roll down it once a year.
The street is a result of impaired city planning. Charles Kettle was the British surveyor who planned Dunedin’s streets. He set them up in a grid similar to Edinburgh, overlooking the New Zealand town’s steep and varied topography. At its steepest point, for every 2.86 metres travelled horizontally, the elevation lifts by one metre.
In July every year since 2002, as part of the Dunedin Cadbury Chocolate Carnival, 25,000 individually numbered Jaffas are rolled down the street. Spectators can bet on one of the Jaffas to win for $1NZ, with all proceeds for the race going to local charities. Next year’s event will be held on Friday July 17, 2015.
For fans of fitness, the Baldwin Street Gutbuster is also held each summer which involves athletes running from the base of the street to the top and back down again.
(Lead image: Dunedin NZ/Flickr)
