I'm visiting New Zealand, advice or ideas?

I'm going to be in New Zealand from January 21 through February 10 and have a bit of time to explore when I'm not working. I'm curious if any of you have knowledge of places worth visiting.
Breweries?
Brew pubs?
Hop Farms?
Beer to keep an eye out for?

I'm also curious what the rules are on transporting hops home if I find some fresh hops? Customs regulations? Legal? Is it worth the trouble? If not then I'll just get hops when I'm home but figured I'd ask in case I found fresh hops while on my journey.

Cities I will be staying in through my trip in order of where I go first to last if this helps with ideas:
Dunedin
Christchurch
Auckland
Hamilton
Wellington

Thank you for any ideas or help.

Advice...


Make it a liver challenge trip unless you skeeeeeert..

Go see the sites.... The whole island is so volcanic its incredible.... I did an Ironman there in 2008 had a great time bouncing around was in Lake Taupo and Auckland the beer was ok... mostly drank VB but we made the whole trip a site seeing trip... really couldn't find the craft beer thing there....

zorbing!

When you're in Auckland visit Galraith's Alehouse in Mt Eden. It's on the city fringe and they are a pub and micro brewery. They specialise in English style ales and have an ever changing selection of local craft beer on tap too. The brewhouse is situated in the pub.
If you're prepared to travel 90 minutes North of Auckland there's a good pub/micro-brewery at Leigh. Leigh is picturesque and has an easily accessible marine reserve where you can snorkel with giant crayfish and schools of enormous snapper. I'm an Auckland local and relatively new craft beer aficionado so can't speak for the other destinations on your list.
BTW Wellington is considered the craft beer capital (as well as the literal capital of NZ) when you're there you should vist Hashiko Zake Cult Beer Bar, they have a massive selection of local craft beers.

Another few to check out in Auckland are Hallertau, The Brewery Britomart, Brothers Brewery, and Brew on Quay.

Another one to check out in wellington is The malthouse

I travelled New Zealand last March around the North and South Islands ala campervan and while its an amazing place, I didnt find many of their beers to be all that spectacular. Most of it is fairly basic and low alcohol while still being relatively expensive. The only place to find a decent beer are in the bigger cities like Auckland/Wellington. Brew on Quay in Auckland had a huge list of beer, but again alot werent New Zealand native. Mac's Brewbar in Wellington was a pretty neat spot and their beer was decent. Monteiths is the dominant beer in the South Island and can be found at pretty much every bar.

We went by a bunch of Hop Farms near Nelson/Motueka (hence the hop names), but Im guessing that it is probably not worth the hassle of trying to get them through customs.

My wife is a kiwi and said she will help out when we get back from town. Just so you know Chch was about leveled in the earthquake and from what I understand burned pretty bad this last week

Its pretty tough to get stuff into the country, getting it out isnt too much of an issue.

dbennett78 said:

I travelled New Zealand last March around the North and South Islands ala campervan and while its an amazing place, I didnt find many of their beers to be all that spectacular. Most of it is fairly basic and low alcohol while still being relatively expensive. The only place to find a decent beer are in the bigger cities like Auckland/Wellington. Brew on Quay in Auckland had a huge list of beer, but again alot werent New Zealand native. Mac's Brewbar in Wellington was a pretty neat spot and their beer was decent. Monteiths is the dominant beer in the South Island and can be found at pretty much every bar.

We went by a bunch of Hop Farms near Nelson/Motueka (hence the hop names), but Im guessing that it is probably not worth the hassle of trying to get them through customs.

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There arent a massive number of craft breweries here, but the one there are can hang with any of the US ones. Clearly you didnt get to the good stuff. Sadly distribution of craft beers is a bit crap. Also, a lot of the breweries are very small, not helping distribution either. It means buying a good beer outside of the major centres can be real pain.

Mac's is decidedly below average as is Monteiths. And neither are craft breweries. Both are owned by the major breweries in NZ.

The one's I'd look out for include:
Epic
Liberty Brewing
8 Wired
Emerson's
Pink Elephant
Three Boy's
Hellertau
Tuatara
Yeasty Boy's
renaissance
Moa

Theres a bunch more, but those are the major ones

As for the low alcohol, the craft beers generally sit at around 5-7%. unfortunately in NZ alcoholic drinks are taxed according to percentage. But i wouldn't call them low alcohol. the mass market swill is a different story.

Stay there and don't come back haha. In all honesty I'm very jealous. Ski and snorkel in the same day.

Thanks for all the ideas and advice. It's going to be an amazing trip for sure. The crew I'm traveling with drinks plenty but quality craft beer is not something they think about. BMC is their style so I try to research out some good brew and do my best to enlighten them. haha! Thanks again.

The whole island is so volcanic its incredible