I just got back from the long 4 day Easter weekend, which I spent in Wellington. It ended up getting extended by one more day back here in Christchurch, due to me feeling very under the weather.
My plan, besides sightseeing, was to try as many of the local beers as possible, and check out the urban climbing opportunities. I didn't take my climbing shoes with me, so I wouldn't get in trouble, but I did check out what beers and pubs I should be looking for while I was there.
We flew in on Friday around midday, checked-in at the hotel, and decided to go check out the Lord Of The Rings display at Te Papa. As we walked to the museum, it became apparent that there weren't too many places open, which was going to make finding something to eat afterwards a bit of a challenge. Needless to say, I got very distracted once we hit Chaffers Park. The concrete slabs that have been set up for climbing around the skate park offer some perfect hand sized crack climbing! Then just before the boardwalk behind Te Papa starts, the stairs down to the mini beach have some great (though dirty) offwidth cracks. Then the back side of Te Papa itself has about a dozen finger cracks, but I think it would be very frowned upon to climb them.
Anyway, after checking out the LotR display, which was quite good, we headed out to find an open restuarant. Of all the pubs I had found in the internet that served local beer, only one was open, Bodega. They have the entire Tuatara range of beers on tap, so I was pretty happy. I have had the Tuatara Pilsner a number of times, and find it the the closest I have had to a Czech Pilsner outside of Europe. I really wanted to run through all of their offerings, but to be honest, the atmostphere wasn't exactly what my girlfriend was looking for. I did manage to try the Tuatara Heffe, Ardennes and Porter though.
Saturday, we did more sightseeing. Thankfully, the Mac's Brewery Bar & Resturant was open for lunch. Excellent food, and all of their beers, including the special releases, on tap. I was happy. I have had pretty much all of the Mac's beers, but there was one special release that I hadn't even heard of, and a brand new one. Verboden Vice and Brewjolais, respectively. The VV is a wheat, and kinda okay, the Brewjolais is a green hopped 'Kiwi' pale ale, and very tasty.
Sunday, we ended up at the One Red Dog for dinner, and some more beer tasting. Though they didn't have anything I hadn't already tried on tap, I made my way through a few bottles of new (for me) Martinborough beers. I had the White Rock Wheat, Martin's Lager, and Square Ale. I didn't like the Square much, but the other two were quite alright. After dinner we retired to our hotel room, where I continued my beer tasting with some bottles of Bennett's that I picked up at the supermarket. I tried the 4 Seasons Ale, Classic Black, and Wellington Lager. I was not pleased with the Black, once it warmed up, but the 4 Season's tasted just like a rather drinkable ginger beer, and the Lager wasn't too bad at all.
Monday, I woke up at 20 to 6 in the morning with a very sore throat, which immediately put an end to any more beer tasting for the rest of my trip.
Tuesday, I spent the day at home, feel very weak and tired, but at least without the sore throat. So, I decided to bottle my latest brew, a honey wheat. I had a bit of a taste, and I think it will be my best beer yet. It is not a proper wheat beer like you would get in southern germany, but rather a very light crisp beer, with a very nice hoppy overtone from the Hallertau hops that I left in the brew during the primary fermentation. I will have the recipe on my recipe page, when I have tried the first bottle.
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