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Wednesday 4 December 2013

Wellington. So much beer and wind…

Okay so the wife and I decided we wanted a long weekend away. Well…I was told we wanted a long weekend away. Preferably involving a passport.

Hmm. A short break overseas? From Australia. That pretty much means Asia…but with 7+ hours of flight time it isn’t really practical for a long weekend.

“What about New Zealand?” I said. “Remember, Wellington is meant to be great for craft beer. They host Beervana…!”

(For those not aware, Beervana is an annual craft beer festival and the biggest of its kind in New Zealand).

As fast as you could say ‘craft beer’ the trip was booked. Suddenly we were going to New Zealand’s windy city for four nights. Sounded like a good break and an opportunity to check out a city (and country for that matter) that we had never been to.

Planning the trip soon returned to the topic of beer and working out which of New Zealand’s breweries are actually in Wellington. Turns out some brilliant ones are there including Garage Project, Parrot Dog and Tuatara. Bonus. Even better - Garage Project and Parrot Dog are ‘downtown’ Massive bonus!

What we hadn’t realised was the number of dedicated craft beer bars that are actually in Wellington. Now we’ve been to the States and there is no way anything could rival Portland, Oregon. Or San Diego, California. No way. However Wellington appeared to be right up there. So much so the city has its own craft beer trail telling you which bars to go to for the best beer.

Purchase a pint at each venue and collect a stamp...get all 12 stamps and get yourself a t-shirt! Brilliant. How could this fail? (Remind me to tell you later exactly how this could fail…)

 Wellington's Craft Beer Trail Map

So off to Wellington we went. A ‘short’ 3 hours and 20 minutes later we landed in the Kiwi capital primed to check out our surroundings and find some of those craft beer bars (after all we did arrive at about 4pm Friday). But first it was a matter of clearing Immigration and Customs; where my wife told the friendly Immigrations Officer that we were ‘here to drink your craft beer’. Surprisingly after that, we were let in…

I won’t bore you with every beer of our Friday pub crawl, other than the next few hours were spent exploring the city and stumbling across the likes of Fork & Brewer, The Bruhaus, D4, Little Beer Quarter and The Tap Haus. That my friends, is 5 stamps on the trail map! Woohoo. We were well on our way to that t-shirt!

Alas we had our fill for one evening and called it a night. A big day was ahead of us exploring the city including the Botanical Gardens, riding the Cable Car and checking out the city’s Saturday craft market.

Long story short, we did all those things, and they were great (well the market was okay at best)…however this isn’t a travel blog. You want to know about the beer, right?

Well beer we did find…in the way of Parrot Dog and Garage Project breweries!

Parrot Dog Brewery

Whilst there is a lot to say about both, there are similarities in the sense that the sites are active, working breweries, they sell lots of merchandise, offer extensive tastings (free of charge!) and allow customers to fill up growlers for take away. Neither in fact have a licence to sell beer onsite. This meant no opportunity to sit back and watch the world pass by over a few beers at the brewery, but it didn’t matter. The quality of beer at both was outstanding.

Garage Project

Also outstanding was the fact that Garage Project was launching their new Day of the Dead beers on that very day! After trying both chilli infused brews at the brewery, staff told us to head over to Golding’s Free Dive Bar for the official launch. So head over we did! The ‘American style dive bar’ was a real highlight of the trip and a great craft beer venue. But it wasn’t on the beer trail map meaning no stamp and still no t-shirt. Boo!

But the Day of Dead through a tequila barrel sure made up for it! Smooth, rich and 11%

Golding's Free Dive Bar - Day of the Dead Launch

The next 48 hours involved a combination of sightseeing and touristy stuff (drinking a Tuatara APA after spotting the native tuatara at Zealandia Sanctuary was a highlight!), checking out some Kiwi scenery and eating and drinking. Oh yes, plenty more drinking…

Highlights of the latter included visits to more quality craft beer bars, including Malthouse and Hashigo Zake. Both were fantastic with a massive range of local and US craft beers, but it was Malthouse that struck a cord. A brief visit turned into a long afternoon session and the opportunity to talk beer with the bar staff (and a couple of American tourists). Just like being in Portland! Even found out that 50% of craft beer sold in New Zealand is sold in Wellington! We sure did come to the right place.

Oh and that would be two more stamps on the beer trail map thanks!

Unfortunately, that would also be the last two stamps on the beer map. We failed. A matter of too many venues and not enough time. And also geography. Some were scattered around the city a little too far; which became a massive effort when there is so many quality bars within short walking distance. Even some of the restaurants had ‘beer menus’ to rival the best bars in some cities.

I was crushed that I didn’t get the t-shirt…especially after finding out it had a great logo and design…sigh. But all was not lost! From out of nowhere my wife informed me that Malthouse was in fact SELLING the exact t-shirt! Why wasn’t I informed of this (8 stamps) earlier?!

 The Infamous T-Shirt Logo

Oh well, we had fun getting stamps and discovered a great little city in the process. And I got the t-shirt!

Wellington…we will be back. No doubt to attend Beervana in 2014!

Till then,
Cheers!…Prost!...Salute!...Kampai!

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