The past few weekends have been fairly busy with a few trips around the country and overseas. The first was a trip to the Hunter Valley in New South Wales to visit my girlfriend’s parents and give our very first Deluxe Beer Gift Pack as a Fathers Day gift. The gift pack went down very well, the only problem being he did not want to break up the gift by drinking the beers!

Returning to Sydney we stopped by Potters Brewery. Being Fathers Day the brewery and pub were working at full steam, ensuring the various Fathers being treated left with some special memories. Here we met one of the brewers, Craig Wealands. The brewery, named the Hunter Beer Co is run 7 days a week with brewery tours 3 times daily, costing just $10. Luckily for us Craig had 5 minutes of his time for a chat while we enjoyed some of the breweries finest. The Kolsch as well as the Bock were both great.

Two weekends later a trip to Wellington, New Zealand was on the agenda for a family reunion courtesy of a 90^th birthday. A victory for the All Blacks against Australia was witnessed as a few different beers were sampled. We got to taste the Monteiths range from a few different pubs including The Corner Store, and The Tasting Room. At the completion of the rugby, a trip was made to the Mac’s Brewery on the waterfront. Mac’s was once a small micro-brewery based in Nelson. After being bought by Lion Nathan it has evolved significantly. It now has a prime position in massive brew-pub premises. After the All Blacks win the pub was pumping, with a live band in action. As a group we tried the Great White, a Belgian witbier, which was immensely refreshing.

Continuing with the sport watching over the weekend we were lucky enough to see Wellington Phoenix take on the Queensland Fury in A league soccer. In beautiful sunny Wellington weather the Phoenix took a 1-0 lead. The score line remained until the Fury equalised in extra time, crushing the souls of the local supporters.

To reflect upon the game that was, we headed to the Wellington Malthouse. The Malthouse has a vast range of beers from New  Zealand and overseas. The beer menu of 16 pages, ensured some great beer was tasted. Within our group the Mata Horopito and the always exceptional Epic Pale Ale were considered standouts.

It was a great weekend, and good to enjoy some of the quality beers that New Zealand has to offer. Having been a while since I was last in Wellington, it was amazing to see how much the beer culture in the Nations capital has changed.