TOURING THE CHELSEA SUGAR FACTORY IN AUCKLAND

The Chelsea Sugar company ran tours of their factory in the 1980s but due to tightening rules and regulations around food the tours had to be stopped.

But thanks to a large investment in the 2010’s Chelsea Sugar Factory tours are available once again.

This post will tell you everything you need to know about taking a tour of the sugar factory based on my experience….I went with a friend and I think we were probably a rare site being two adults with no kids in tow on the tour!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Details | How To Get There | Likes and Dislikes | Trip Report | Quick Tips

HOW TO GET THERE

The Chelsea Sugar Factory is on Auckland’s North Shore, the official address is:

100 Colonial Road, Birkenhead, Auckland 0626.

Drive: There’s a large carpark at the factory with free parking. The driving times in Auckland are influenced massively by traffic, but it should take you 20-30 minutes to drive there from Britomart (touchwood).

Public Transport: If you’re coming from the Auckland CBD, you’ll be catching a bus over the Auckland Harbour Bridge to get to Chelsea. The closest bus stop is 63 Birkenhead Ave which leaves you a 12-20 minute walk down the hill through the Chelsea Heritage Park to the factory. There are a couple of bus options depending on your departure time, so check with Google Maps for the best option when you want to depart. The journey will take 35-45 minutes from Britomart to the Factory.

Ride Sharing Apps: I searched YourRIde, Ola, and Uber for the ride from Britomart Place to Chelsea Sugar and the prices ranged from $16-$27.

CHELSEA SUGAR FACTORY TOUR REVIEW

WHAT I LIKED

• The guide was personable, enthusiatic, and great at answering all questions.
• Everything ran on time.
• The cap of 18 people on the tour is a good number.
• One hour is a good length of time, lots of information, yet short enough to keep me interested.
• The factory staff didn’t mind at all when we went into their offices on the tour.
• The bright pink costumes, you can have a photo taken that’ll be sent to you via text or email.
• The free interactive room you can explore beforehand.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE

• No cameras allowed on the tour (pros and cons to this).
• We got a chance to taste some of the syrups, but it would be nice to get a small bottle to take home.

CHELSEA SUGAR FACTORY TOUR TRIP REPORT

You’re advised to arrive at the factory reception 15 minutes before the tour begins which is sensible as this is the time that we got to put on our pink hi-vis jacket and helmet, place bags in the lockers, and get our photo taken. When the tour is 5 minutes away from starting a fun video is played to give you an outline of what you can expect on the tour, and the regular safety precautions. This reminded me of the cool AirNZ safety videos.

We were then introduced to our guide (Doug) who I believe got us on board the train at 4 pm on the dot.

The tour capacity is 18 people, and that allows for plenty of space on the train carriage given the majority of people on tour will be kids. Doug sits at the front of the carriage and while I could hear him from the back (there’s a speaker on the carriage), if you’re hearing is hazy at times you’ll be better to sit towards the front to hear all the fun facts and stories Doug shares.

We started off the tour by driving to the factory where the sugar mountain is, and it’s just like in the cartoons! On our visit, there were ~28,000 tonnes of sugar ready to be processed. But considering 40,000 tonnes is shipped to New Zealand every eight weeks (from Guatemala, Brazil, and other parts of South America), the room was not nearly at capacity. This was to our benefit as this meant we could drive into the factory to get closer to the sugar which looks just like a massive sand dune!

All the while Doug is letting us know how the sugar is transported from the ship to the factory (the unloading process takes five days), which is way more interesting than I ever thought it’d be.

After driving around a little bit and learning more about Chelsea, we arrive at the area of the refinery where the sugar goes through a multistage cleaning process. Once again, it’s more interesting than I expected as we’re shown the different stages of sugar from the operating room. This was cool, as the vantage point from here lets you see all the different machinery involved.

My memory is bad it turns out, but I believe the next part was a look at some photos taken of the factory throughout the history which helped provide more context to what Doug was telling us. The way they use to stack the sugar would intimidate me if I was close to them I think!

We then go to another operating room where we learn about the later processes involved in getting the sugar to a crystallized state. This time we could see the computers that the operators look at, wow, it looks complicated!

Then as we get close to the end of the tour we are taken to a room where we can see how the branding has evolved with all the different packaging over the years. That leads us to the sampling section where there were all of the different syrups waiting for us to try (yay for eco-friendly spoons). When we all had our dose of sugar, it was time to head back to the start point where the tour finished a few minutes before 5 pm.

THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE YOU GO

• No phones are allowed on tour as mentioned above (you can put them in the lockers). Deal with it.
• You have to bring clothing with long sleeves and long pants.
• Go early for the interactive zone (10-15 mins is plenty).
• You’ll walk up 160 steps during the tour.
• The Cafe will be shut after you finish if you take the last tour.
• Book in advance! In the summer anyway, tours will sell out regularly.
• There didn’t appear to be a ‘best seat’ in the truck, so no need to race for anywhere.
• Explore the Heritage park if you’ve got time, love some inner-city greenery.

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I really enjoy the Chelsea Sugar Factory tour! I hope this post has helped convince you to visit, it’s super fun. Despite sugar getting a bad wrap in most forms of media these days, I found everything super interesting.

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