Anyone else here from New Zealand?

I'd like to know if swappa crate bottles are strong enough for me to bottle my brews in.

Not from NZ, but I might be able to help. Do the bottles you are talking about originally hold a carbonated beverage? For example, Champagne bottles could hold a bottle conditioned beer since it is made to hold carbonation. A wine bottle on the other hand would be a bad idea. In the same thread, you could probably safely bottle in glass coca cola bottles too. Hope this helps if nobody else can.

Hi there from a fellow Kiwi, who can confirm that Swappa bottles are the business for homebrew! They are absolutely ideal, plenty strong, made for refilling, they are the money, and best of all a source for cheap bottles. Just get all of your mates around to drink the swill that comes in them, or buy their empties off them for $10 a crate!

For all other (non-kiwis) who are interested, a swappa crate is an old-school wooden crate of 12x 750ml refillable bottles that the major brewers sell their bulk brands in. You get 9 litres of (not very good) beer for about $40. Then you take the empty crate back to the liquor store (or "bottle shop" if you're old-school) and "swap" the crate of empties for full ones at a discount. Apparently it's a huge PITA for the brewerys, and they hoped that they'd die out in the 90's, but it didn't happen.

For an example of a swappa crate required viewing is the movie "Once Were Warriors"

Yup, NZ homebrewer here, I have used swappa crate bottles with no dramas.

Have about 6 crates here that did the rounds with HB for a while but have since moved to kegs so they're kinda redundant now.

If you're keen for some more local discussion RealBeer.co.nz has a forum for NZ brewers.

So I basically get a $10 discount if I return the bottles and crate back, and otherwise I lose that $10 'deposit'? I'm currently bottling my brews in plastic bottles, and the empty bottles cost me $15.50 for a 15 pack at a homebrew shop so I'm keen for glass bottles.

Yeah, I don't drink the stuff that comes in the swappas so I just went to a bottle store and they let me take the empties and crates for whatever the deposit was, I think $6 or something.

Get all the positives of glass and at a cheaper price than the plastic.