Crate Day in NZ

We arrived in New Zealand just in time for Crate Day - the first Saturday in December where you try to drink a crate (12) bottles of beer in 12 hours. You can read more about it here. Who knew such a thing existed (it’s not in the tourist info). Apparently it’s mostly males 20-34 that need treatment for alcohol consumption the next day so we’re not really in that demographic. Instead we attended the South Island Wine and food festival at a big park a few blocks from our hotel. About 50 NZ wineries were selling samples, glasses or bottles. Big stage with music. Thousands of people. Many interesting food options - Ross had the pulled lamb sliders and I had the crab crème donut. Thumbs up on both of them.

It was a beautiful day and we spent another part of it just wandering the downtown area. Although the population is 380,000 it seems like much less. It’s quite spread out and there aren’t any high rise buildings - I think because of earthquakes. There is a park that runs the length of the river through the city and lots of public art, a lot with indigenous themes.

We had to pick our car up from the airport so figured out how to take the bus there for $2.  It just so happened that today was the first day they instituted paying by tapping with credit cards and we were the first to do so. Because of that we were ‘interviewed' by a transit employee.  After telling her we were from Canada she said she spent 6 months at a small ski hill called Silver Star - yup small world.  She’s also a singer in the only professional choir in New Zealand.  

After we got the car we headed to Lyttleton, the port, and hopped on a ferry over to Diamond Harbour. There’s a nice park but not much else within walking distance.

As you might expect we managed to find an Irish pub which coincidentally had a session this afternoon. Ross persuaded me to go (nothing to do with the Guinness of course) and they were very welcoming. I knew quite a few of the songs and one guy was even from Cape Breton. Irish music surprisingly has a large presence in NZ.