black_labb
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I decided I should do a quick review of the trip (aka beers) with some pics and occasionally a story behind it.
Here I drank a very nice oatmeal stout while looking for a good place to pitch the tent, in this case a dry riverbed was chosen (don't worry, it was obviously snowmelt that got this river flowing, as the 400m wide riverbed was dry at the time). This beer made me wonder if my oatmeal stout I had under the house would turn out as nice as this once it was ready
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6941]
These pics were taken at Renaissance Brewery / the adjacent pub. At about 3pm I went into the pub linked to renaissance and asked them if there was any chance for a quick chat/ tour. The bartender came back a minute later with brian, the co-owner of Renaissance. Brian showed me around the operations while we talked about the system. We had a good laugh about Marlborough brewing who went bankrupt. They advised Brian and Andy when buying the brewery that they could save a lot of money by using sugar in all their beers to get to the desired ABV. The brewery design they used didn't work out very well either. They were using a separate mash and lauter and pumping the full mash between the vessels meaning that that every sparge was stuck.
After talking to Brian for a while he introduced me to Jason. Jason was working at the brewery but was also a home brewer; he had just cleaned up at a local brewing comp. We chatted for a while about brewing while he was cleaning kegs. I had another beer with Jason before we both head home (the tent via a beer/supermarket)
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6942]
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6943]
A great camping spot and one of the best beers I had in NZ. Would have topped it if the mushrooms I found there were the type I thought they were.
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6944]
Here I cooked dinner in a light shower. I'm pretty comfortable with cooking and am pretty resourceful when cooking and camping. Someone in a campervan came out and wanted to take a photo of me because I looked like I was making a great dinner with basic equipment. It probably wasn't intentional but he made me feel like an animal in a zoo, no conversation just "my wife wanted me to take a photo of you, is that ok" before retreating to his rented mansion on wheels. I decided to avoid DOC campsites along highways after this. Having other people around isn't pleasant when you don't feel any connection.
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6945]
After dinner I drowned my sorrows with an excellent english beer on a dock.
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6946]
On my way through arrowtown I stopped at arrow brewing company with Steffen from Stuttgart, who I met earlier that day. We stopped in and decided to share the tasting rack. After finishing that I got talking out the back to the brewer about different brewing related items. After a few samples of small run brews and another pint or 2 we left riding at a more relaxed pace the last bit to queenstown (should have stayed in arrowtown, queenstown was pretty dissapointing)
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6947]
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6948]
I bought this Harvistoun in Blenheim and rode with it for about 3 weeks and about 1500km. I kept it as an emergency beer, incase of bad weather that had me stranded in the tent or similar. I decided to take a bus to christchurch so I had a couple days there instead of getting there just intime for the flight. I had a few hours to wait so the emergency beer by the lake seemed like the right thing to do to pass time. The bus got me in to christchurch at 9.30 pm. After cruising around christchurch for 1.5 hrs I realised that there wasn't any budget accomodation available (earthquakes had knocked out a fair bit of the accomodation). I almost went to find a half destroyed building to sleep in but decided that I didn't want to get caught taking advantage of their misfortune, and I didn't want to lift the bike and gear over the buildings.
Long story short, I was a bit unimpressed with the beer (maybe it's not ideal for a beer to be bouncing along on a pushbike for 3 weeks, but at least it's not sitting out the back of dan murphy's for months in the sun). I was impressed with it's ability to keep me in good situations. I ended up pitching the tent in the botanical gardens in the rain and waking up very early to avoid being seen.
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6949]
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6950]
This was taken at the Dark Room, a small Pub that serves hand pulled beer (polypins) as well as an excellent range of bottled beer. They are a minimalistic venue set up in an industrial area after the earthquakes in christchurch. I got there at about 5.30pm for a couple beers, and stayed for a couple mediocre bands. I started to leave but ran into an odd pair rolling a spliff in a carpark. Henry was young and liked to talk about drugs and a guy in his late 40's/early 50's. I started talking to the older guy about Killdozer, a post-punk band from the 80's that had alot of dark humour and an angry voice.
After this point I think our conversations were reduced to quoting quotes from killdozer songs in killdozer voices. At the end of the night I was back to the start, just me talking to the owners of the venue alone at the bar, except it was 10 hours later and I was slightly more intoxicated. On my walk home I saw an american diner chain Denny's set up. I walked in and had a nearly civilised meal out with american style table service, but at 4.15 am (according to the docket I found in the morning). I hadn't had a night out filled with little surprises like this in a long time. I was just glad my flight was only later in the afternoon the next day.
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6951]
Here I drank a very nice oatmeal stout while looking for a good place to pitch the tent, in this case a dry riverbed was chosen (don't worry, it was obviously snowmelt that got this river flowing, as the 400m wide riverbed was dry at the time). This beer made me wonder if my oatmeal stout I had under the house would turn out as nice as this once it was ready
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6941]
These pics were taken at Renaissance Brewery / the adjacent pub. At about 3pm I went into the pub linked to renaissance and asked them if there was any chance for a quick chat/ tour. The bartender came back a minute later with brian, the co-owner of Renaissance. Brian showed me around the operations while we talked about the system. We had a good laugh about Marlborough brewing who went bankrupt. They advised Brian and Andy when buying the brewery that they could save a lot of money by using sugar in all their beers to get to the desired ABV. The brewery design they used didn't work out very well either. They were using a separate mash and lauter and pumping the full mash between the vessels meaning that that every sparge was stuck.
After talking to Brian for a while he introduced me to Jason. Jason was working at the brewery but was also a home brewer; he had just cleaned up at a local brewing comp. We chatted for a while about brewing while he was cleaning kegs. I had another beer with Jason before we both head home (the tent via a beer/supermarket)
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6942]
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6943]
A great camping spot and one of the best beers I had in NZ. Would have topped it if the mushrooms I found there were the type I thought they were.
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6944]
Here I cooked dinner in a light shower. I'm pretty comfortable with cooking and am pretty resourceful when cooking and camping. Someone in a campervan came out and wanted to take a photo of me because I looked like I was making a great dinner with basic equipment. It probably wasn't intentional but he made me feel like an animal in a zoo, no conversation just "my wife wanted me to take a photo of you, is that ok" before retreating to his rented mansion on wheels. I decided to avoid DOC campsites along highways after this. Having other people around isn't pleasant when you don't feel any connection.
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6945]
After dinner I drowned my sorrows with an excellent english beer on a dock.
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6946]
On my way through arrowtown I stopped at arrow brewing company with Steffen from Stuttgart, who I met earlier that day. We stopped in and decided to share the tasting rack. After finishing that I got talking out the back to the brewer about different brewing related items. After a few samples of small run brews and another pint or 2 we left riding at a more relaxed pace the last bit to queenstown (should have stayed in arrowtown, queenstown was pretty dissapointing)
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6947]
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6948]
I bought this Harvistoun in Blenheim and rode with it for about 3 weeks and about 1500km. I kept it as an emergency beer, incase of bad weather that had me stranded in the tent or similar. I decided to take a bus to christchurch so I had a couple days there instead of getting there just intime for the flight. I had a few hours to wait so the emergency beer by the lake seemed like the right thing to do to pass time. The bus got me in to christchurch at 9.30 pm. After cruising around christchurch for 1.5 hrs I realised that there wasn't any budget accomodation available (earthquakes had knocked out a fair bit of the accomodation). I almost went to find a half destroyed building to sleep in but decided that I didn't want to get caught taking advantage of their misfortune, and I didn't want to lift the bike and gear over the buildings.
Long story short, I was a bit unimpressed with the beer (maybe it's not ideal for a beer to be bouncing along on a pushbike for 3 weeks, but at least it's not sitting out the back of dan murphy's for months in the sun). I was impressed with it's ability to keep me in good situations. I ended up pitching the tent in the botanical gardens in the rain and waking up very early to avoid being seen.
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6949]
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6950]
This was taken at the Dark Room, a small Pub that serves hand pulled beer (polypins) as well as an excellent range of bottled beer. They are a minimalistic venue set up in an industrial area after the earthquakes in christchurch. I got there at about 5.30pm for a couple beers, and stayed for a couple mediocre bands. I started to leave but ran into an odd pair rolling a spliff in a carpark. Henry was young and liked to talk about drugs and a guy in his late 40's/early 50's. I started talking to the older guy about Killdozer, a post-punk band from the 80's that had alot of dark humour and an angry voice.
After this point I think our conversations were reduced to quoting quotes from killdozer songs in killdozer voices. At the end of the night I was back to the start, just me talking to the owners of the venue alone at the bar, except it was 10 hours later and I was slightly more intoxicated. On my walk home I saw an american diner chain Denny's set up. I walked in and had a nearly civilised meal out with american style table service, but at 4.15 am (according to the docket I found in the morning). I hadn't had a night out filled with little surprises like this in a long time. I was just glad my flight was only later in the afternoon the next day.
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6951]
