At 12.35pm, 30,000 Giant Jaffas swept down the world's steepest street.
While the majority 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 about 1500 people to Baldwin St, Dunedin, yesterday to pay homage to the annual racing of the balls.
The event itself went off without a hitch as the crowd enjoyed the sunshine, musical entertainment, including Smashproof, a fashion parade, free chocolate and face painting.
However, a large traffic jam formed on North Rd when 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".
Police and traffic management were present and did their best to keep the traffic flowing.
Free buses from the Octagon were "well attended", she said.
"It's always good to see people take the buses."
When asked if more free buses would be made available next year, Mrs Anderson said a decision would be taken "under advice" following a debrief next week.
Bottom Bus general manager Ralph Davies said he, along with another driver, took about 300 people to the event.
Despite large queues in the Octagon, everyone made it on time to see the Jaffa race, he said.
It would be good to co-ordinate transportation better to avoid the "log jam" at the end of the race, he said.
Before the event, concern was raised about an organised palm-oil protest.
However, the dozen protesters put their message across peacefully.
They gathered at the bottom of Baldwin St with placards and photographs of orang-utans, the animal which the group says is threatened by palm-oil production, and distributed fliers.
Race tickets were bought from as far away as Auckland, with numbers 21078, 28266, 27329, 01624 and 09228 coming down, in that order.
Carnival events co-ordinator Lee-Anne Anderson was "very pleased" with the record $86,700 collected yesterday - well above last year's total of $70,000.
More money was expected to be added to the tally when proceeds from a street appeal were added, she said.
