Its Sunday morning and I think they are still all asleep in Wellington, the Airport lounge isn’t open yet and we are starting to get a bit dry. We wander around the nearly deserted airport waiting, waiting, waiting, then finally a little action.  The lounge opens, straight to the refrigerator and grab a ice cold Steinlager Pure…..mmm delicious (…well not really, I think the Pure bit means no beer taste? – but who is complaining it’s complementary booze)

There’s only one question – where to next? lets see what our friendly travel butler will come up with!

We stumbled upon another of Mac’s fantastic brew pubs and had to give it a go. This one was on Wellington’s waterfront and none of that ‘Cant serve beer because its Easter’ going on here! YUM

This city is cool, lots to do and see. Its smaller than Auckland but maybe even better, but the beautiful warm sunny day is certainly showing it at its best.

The Te Papa is New Zealand’s premier museum and one of the worlds best. It is free and well worth a look, it takes you on a journey through everything New Zealand, its animals, culture, heritage and more. It is located on the Wellington Waterfront very vibrant and happening precinct.

We visited Wellington for the weekend about 10 years ago or so on some special $99 return flight but really didn’t get to see to much as it was so cold and the wind was so intense. The place is a lot more vibrant and fun that we remember, its a pretty cool place and reminds us a bit of Hobart, only they speak funny and like mince pies a little too much. The waterfront is really fantastic with lots of attractions, plenty of art and places to stop and enjoy a bite or drink.

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One of our favorite New Zealand Beers back home is Tui a India Pale Ale style beer. Today we visit their brewery attraction just outside of Mangatainoka. The complex is pretty cool they have a great beer garden, cafe and of course gift shop. There are huge picnic lawns and they are working on putting in conference facilities and doing overnight stays- should be fun. Being Friday the brewery is not in full operation but we go on a very fascinating tour of their facilities and learn how they brew their beer. The packaging machinery was working and very interesting to watch the bottles being wrapped inside a sheet of cardboard that becomes a box by a few clever folds by the lightning fast machine. The tour ends with the traditional try our brew, and they have a few specialty beers that are brewed just for the attraction, very tasty indeed.

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Tonight we head to Palmerston North and stop of at the Post Office Hotel in Manawatu-Wanganu for some lunch and a refreshment.

The town got flattened in an earthquake in the early 1930’s and was just about completely rebuilt in a beautiful architectural style. The city is regarded as one of the best collections of art deco buildings. Its a shame it is so wet today as it is limiting the sight seeing  little. But there are some great views from the pub window. Here you can see some amazing arches and a bandstand on the waterfront. Its just a shame its pissing down so much, its making it very difficult to get out there and enjoy the splendor.

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There was some great native artifacts and interesting architecture around Roturua, it helped make up for the putrid smell of the bubbling goo.

The rotting sulfuric mud has a nasty rotten egg smell its not very pleasant, but it sure is interesting. The green grey slimy water bubbles and burps, i don’t know how the ducks and geese live swimming on it. The whole region is known for its volcanic and geothermal activity. You see steam smoke and bubbles coming from the strangest places when driving around. The area has a lot of traditional Maori buildings and attractions, with some fairly scary carvings.

Tirau is nestled in the South Waikato and is a quirky little township that has a fun corrugated iron theme. Most of the shops and many of the houses have sculptures or interesting artefacts made of congregated iron. The tourist information centre is one of the best is the giant cattle dog and there is also a giant sheep next door that is home to a art and craft gallery.  The pie shop has great pies too.

We get up early and its still pretty overcast, we travel about 125 km to Hamilton, home of Richard O’Brien who is better known as Riff Raff in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. They even have a statue and toilets named after him- no joke. Taking about doing the time warp- its Easter Monday and also ANZAC Day surely there is beer on ANZAC Day, Things don’t look to good. Nothing is open. We head down to the pissy casino, it could have fit in my lounge and still no liquor, but 1:00PM the taps come on and we head to the Belgium Beer Cafe for a few delcious ales as it has become a bit too wet out there to do anything else, and we have seen the the best of Hamilton -the Riff Raff Statue.