We’d been wondering for a while where our other favourite McKenzie brother has been at because we haven’t seen him behind the bar at Hooch or Hawthorn for ages, but of course we kept forgetting to ask, because naturally we were too busy asking for another drink.

Well, it turns out that Justin has been working as 42Below’s vodka professor (we hope this means he gets a cap and gown) and he’s been rather busy today with the regional finals of the Cocktail World Cup. The three bartenders who’ll be representing New Zealand will be Auckland’s James Goggin from Racket and our own Josh Crawford from Hooch and Calum Chadwick from the Matterhorn.

As usual, there’s all kinds of fun and games in Queenstown around the event, but since we’re the Wellingtonista probably the bit that you’re interested in is that the grand finale is happening in Wellington on March 27, featuring the world’s best bartenders and (I’m going to quote the press release here) "New Zealand’s best rock group ‘Midnight Youth’", and probably quite a few splashes of vodka as well. And we’ve got a double pass to give away to it!

Along with the invited VIPS, 42BELOW is offering a select number of people the chance to attend the Grand Final Shake off as vodka groupies. Tickets are being sold for $42, which includes four cocktails, food and entertainment so get in quick for a chance to party with New Zealand’s best music and with the world’s best bartenders.

You can buy tickets from CocktailWorldCup.com, but if you want to win tickets from us, you’ll need to be over 18, for starters. Then we’d like you to come up with your own cocktail featuring 42Below that’s Wellington-themed. Yup, we did this before waaaaaay back in 2006 when we were still on blogspot, but damned if I can find the link. So, if you want to win, leave us your cocktail suggestions in the comments before Monday March 8, and we’ll choose a winner. Hurray!