In 1979, a friendship that has lasted decades was made in the halls of Unicol between a group of 10 former residents.
Every year, the group aim to meet up to hang out — they have had four meetings and this is the first back in Dunedin.
Winner of the 1979 Unicol "longest eyelashes" competition, Malcolm Bollen, of Whangarei, said life in the hall was "pleasantly feral".
"I could name some names about several really prominent New Zealand leading citizens that joined in on some mischief."
Nine members of the friendship group all met in Dunedin to revisit the city, hang out together and have a tour of Unicol.
The hall of residence had changed from their day — it was now far more "flash".
When they were residents, males and females were segregated and the entire place was un-carpeted.
Mischief was common in the halls of Unicol — Mr Bollen recalled a "gorgeous engaged blonde girl" who had a "big day" coming up who fell victim to a rather "mean" prank.
"One of the boys got a little gelatine capsule and put some methylene blue in it — blue dye — and popped it in the shower head.
"She was just having a pleasant shower. Next thing I saw, ‘poof’, she was blue. The colour didn’t come out for a while."
He also recalled a French student who "just liked to climb" who got banned from climbing the girls tower after a few complained he was scaling the building while they were getting changed.
"He was mad — I don’t know that he ever passed anything, but he had a lot of fun in the process."
One poor employee of Unicol at the time quit after getting caught in the crossfire of a yoghurt fight the residents started after she tried to ban them from taking the pottles out of the dining hall.
Love was also found in the halls of Unicol.
After initially meeting in the dining hall, these days two members of the group, Richard and Pip de Hamel, are married and living in Wakefield, near Nelson.
"They can remember the food fight when they first met — love at first yoghurt pottle," Mr Bollen said.
These days everyone is spread far and wide around New Zealand, with careers spanning healthcare, surveying and conservation.
Mr Bollen said the friendships they made in Unicol were "very formative friendships".
"We went into the great unknown and being in a hostel was perfect for actually connecting with other people."
