We pulled into the “Jailhouse Accomodations” and were a little skeptical due to the dodgy part of town we were in. As we went inside, pleasant surprises added up to a great experience –one of the best hostels to date! We had a tiny room in an old cell and it was a great starting point for our adventures.
Jailhouse Accommodations
Jail-tastic
Once we check in, we made a beeline for Dux D’Lux brewery (home of the Tom Cat ginger beer previously mentioned with glowing praise). We proceeded to sample all their offerings and are sad to report that the ginger beer is the only one we really cared for… onward for further research into the ChCh beer world!
Joh tasting some sweet beerz @ Dux D'Lux
Next, we proceeded to the “Twisted Hop” where CBird had the honey wheat beer and Joh had a “strong ale”. They are taxed by alcohol percentage here, so stronger beers are significantly more pricey and less common. Both of these beers were good but not up to our NorCal standards (How lucky are we to live in the center of the beer universe?), a common theme.
@ Twisted Hop
For dinner we went to Chinwag Eathai –Joh had a whole Gurnard fried with a spicy sauce and Cbird had the Squid with ginger on a bed of fresh green beens. We started the meal with a delicious hot and sour soup with (a) Prawn and a fresh lettuce wrap with toasted coconut, sesame seeds, lemongrass and spices (You would love this one, BT–even with the coconut!). All of our food was fantastic but eclipsed by the Monsoon Poon adventure a few nights before.
Hot and sour soup
Joh's WHOLE Gurnard...yipes!
Squid w/ginger over fresh green beans...nom...nom...nom...
Poor, poor Mr. Gurnard...:(
The next morning we met with some immigration and employment advisors… basically it breaks down like this: $25-30k to immigrate and take a job making $50-70k a year… so… we’re coming back to the USA… for now…
We split outta there pretty quick-like and headed to another Asian meal (we are in “pan-asia”, after all). This time, we opted for Vietnamese food in a little “Chinatown” looking strip mall on the edge of town where all the Asians were actually eating. It was awesomez! We drank a 22 of the Tom Cat we happened to have in the car (chilling) and had fresh spring rolls, vegetarian pho (Yum!) and veggie tofu stir fry with rice -all for under $30!
We may not have mentioned before but most mains here are around $30, leading to most meals being $100 plus when you consider several $10 beers on the tab.
Later that night, after a wee nap and shower, we headed out to “Beertopia –Nirvana for beer lovers”. With hopes high to finally discover the elusive delicious Kiwi beerverage, we were not disappointed. We’ll do another post on just beer when this is all said and done (we still have some exploring to do). Memorable brewers included “8 Wire”, “Three Boys”, “Invercargill”, “Pink Elephant” and “Mike’s Organic” (again). We sat with some interesting Kiwis and changed their beer paradigm by sharing some CA brews we had brought with us. One of the best quotes was “This is a real revelation in beer, man!” Noted…
The following morning we got up bright and early (we really had not had that much to drink the night before, shockingly enough) and headed out to explore ChCh and the surrounding area via our sweet ride, Matilda. We found a kite boarding expo that was closing up shop due to lack of wind –we still got to check out some sweet kites, a kite driven buggy and even kids working on their sweet moves.
Across the way was the most interesting store… a warehouse, really… full of recycled clothing. Each piece was two dollars. We poked around and quickly realized everything was worth about 20 cents each. Off we went to the next adventure.
$2 Clothes Warehouse!
And quite and adventure it was… We drove up into the mountains overlooking the city. Wild roads, aggressive drivers and no guard rails lead us to some of the most breath-taking views of our trip so far… surfing beaches, secluded bays with yachts in them, fields of sheep and para-sailers overhead made for quite a satisfactory photo session. Very nice! We headed back down, careful not to careen off the cliff, to explore the surfing beach and had a fun time watching surfers and paddle boarders doing their thing.
Views of the coves around ChristChurch
Overlooking a suburb of ChristChurch
ChristChurch surf beach
On the way back, we stopped by a “bottle shop” we had skoped out on the way out. This was a “revelation in beer” and spirits! Pictures tell a thousand words, but basically it’s bulk beer and liquor sold by the two liter bottle from taps. Every kind… and all pretty good! We opted for a dry (high proof) cider from local apples and “Big John”, a 7.8% dark ale. We drank the cider up within a few hours and put the beer in the chilly bin for later.
BULK BEER!!
BULK SPIRITS!
We cooked dinner at the hostel (noodle stir-fry with tofu from “Chinatown”) and then headed out to “Pomeroys Olde Brewery Inn” for some more libations. We met mister Pomeroy who toured us around some of his favorite NZ brews, including a bottle of super-hard to find “Yeastie Boys” Dark Black for the road. We haven’t tried that yet, but it looks promising! We had a very fun time and Pomeroy’s is clearly a NZ beer aficionado’s playground. We loved it and shared a North Coast Brother Thelonius with him (that was hard to part with after all these miles together!) –best beer place to date.
@ Pomeroy's
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