Henric & Mary



Thomas, Amy and Henric with a view of Lake Wakitipu



While in Queenstown, Amy and I ended up becoming good friends with another couple, Henric and Mary. Henric is from Sweden and Mary is from Nelson. They met while working at a ski resort in Switzerland and have been bouncing around to different countries, living, working and just generally trying to be together. We got on quite well with them as we obviously share similar experiences and interests. Henric worked at Rata with John, and our relationship began by bumming rides up to the ski field with him. Eventually we were skiing with Henric almost every day that we would go up. To repay him for driving us up the mountain, we would often invite him and Mary over for homebrew or just head off to happy hour with them.

 

Thomas and Henric playing around in Wanaka

The four of us opted to head over to Wanaka one day. We had lunch and a beer at Kai Whaka Pai, went on the Wanaka Beer Works Brewery tour, including delicious tastings and had a very casual and windy game of Frisbee golf. Everyone, even another group of players, was stoked as I achieved the accomplishment of getting a hole in one!!! It tried to rain on us but it didn't really, instead we finished our game while the sun set through the clouds and a storm came rolling in. It was an amazing sight to see, and made for some strong winds and wonky Frisbee throws!

 

 

Thomas, Amy, Mary and Henric with Lake Wanaka

Just before we left Queenstown, the four of us made a trip to Dunedin for a craft beer and food festival at the Forsyth bar stadium. We were all very much looking forward to this. While heading that way we decided to swing by the Catlins and make a mean road trip out of the day.

 

 

We had the wild early start of something like 5.30am and had the most beautiful drive south along the lake past Kingston and right through Southland, passing places like Gore. It was just such a wonderful time to be driving with a long sunrise and beautiful scenary. Not that the others saw much more than their eyelids, while I saw it all from behind the wheel. We went to Kaka Point, Nugget Point and walked through Tunnel Hill. Straight over to Dunedin though, cos the fancy beer awaited.

 

Nugget Point

We all bought around the 50 dollar mark for tokens, which is how you purchased food and beer. I meticulously planned every drink I had and loved most and a few new breweries stood out to me. Those being the Velvet Worm from Dunedin and Golden Eagle from Christchurch. Henric and myself got very jolly off our beer sampling and Henric happly blew the bank on lots of food too, being a chef and all. Amy was a good girl and was our sober driver all the way home back to Queenstown. She did say we were very annoying passengers on the ride though, and getting lost in Dunedin and driving through the dark and snow across Central Otago made for a awesome day.

 

Enjoying some delicious beer and good company