Xtending ourselves to try a new bar

When Lou from LOUD in Pub­lic PR invit­ed us to the open­ing of Xtend Barre Welling­ton, we weren’t entire­ly enthused on the idea.  Great that a big brand was com­ing to New Zealand and had cho­sen Welling­ton first before Auck­land, but an exer­cise stu­dio pro­mot­ing a work­out fusion of bal­let and pilates is not exact­ly our thing — because well, you saw the word exer­cise, right? BUT if you are into exer­cise, you should def­i­nite­ly keep read­ing or jump straight to the com­pe­ti­tion bit.

But, Lou is a friend so we came along for a look.  She said the event had great spon­sors, so instead of focus­ing sole­ly on the stu­dio, we’d be able to try an array of bev­er­ages and some deli­cious raw veg­an snacks as well as get a swag bag with many treats. She was def­i­nite­ly talk­ing our lan­guage!

First up on the bar was Allan Scott Cecil­ia Bub­bles.  A sparkling Chardon­nay, rea­son­ably light but with a fruity tex­ture.  We had a cou­ple of those and did­n’t feel too spacey, so all in all — good.  Next was a spark­ly beer from the Garage Project — Hops on Pointe.  This beer was specif­i­cal­ly designed for the Roy­al New Zealand Bal­let, so it fit­ted in well with the open­ing of the stu­dio.  Spark­ly though — can you see a theme, here?

Nir­vana Coconut water was next up and unlike most coconut waters that taste utter­ly ter­ri­ble, this one was sur­pris­ing­ly deli­cious.  Xtend Barre is all about hydra­tion — so I was­n’t sur­prised to see a water brand up there too.  Te Wai­hou water came in a pret­ty bot­tle and, well, it’s water.  Tastes clean and like bot­tled water does.

Food wise we were offered a selec­tion of raw veg­an snacks.  We tried the kale crisps and the bliss balls — both pret­ty good. Oth­er Welling­ton­istas will dis­agree with me but you don’t always need cheese to have a good time!

Our swag bag con­tained a pass to try an Xtend Barre class, some Xtend Barre sticky socks, a bot­tle of water and a sam­ple of Skin­nies new beau­ty gel.

It’s entire­ly pos­si­ble you’re less lazy than me, so you can check out Xtend Barre at www.xtendbarrewellington.com — they are at 8 Ebor Street — just oppo­site Moore Wil­son.

In fact, we even have a give­away! You can win a pass for an Xtend Barre class, a bag and pair of sticky socks to do the class in. They are sup­posed to be sticky we swear! Just leave us a com­ment telling us what you think a specif­i­cal­ly Welling­ton kind of exer­cise is (like “The Mighty Mighty Stair Climb” (RIP) or “The vege mar­ket grab and lift”). We’ll draw a win­ner at ran­dom next Fri­day.