soup and a scone at Arlo

Best of the Week: May 18–25

Our weekly wrap-up of what’s good,  this time fea­tur­ing fea­tur­ing Emma, Joanna and Tom Emma’s bests Best theatre: Farce Onion at BATS – a deeply warm­ing joy­ous non­sense impro­vised time Best vibes: Still­wa­ter – I only had a drink there with some mates so I can­’t speak to the effic­acy of their cof­fee or food […]

Candidates: Sea Rotmann for the Greens in Wairarapa

We invited all can­did­ates in Wel­ling­ton elect­or­ates to con­tact us with their answers to fif­teen crowd­sourced ques­tions. Answers are restric­ted to 30 words each, and we pub­lish them exactly as we receive them.  Who are you and what do you want?  My name is Dr Sea Rot­mann and I want NZ to be green and […]

It’s Wine Time

I know we talked about this last year, when we made fun of John McGrath (you know, just for a change) but I feel the need to remind y’all that the Wair­ar­apa Wine Har­vest Fest­iv­al is com­ing up again.

And now I can say for cer­tain that it really is the most kick­ass day ever. Just $25 gets your tick­et into the shindig, and you can get a shuttle from the train for $15. Taste wines from all kinds of boutique wine­makers around the Wair­ar­apa, many of whom don’t have a cel­lar door. Laugh as the man from Mae­bus describes his favour­ite Pinot Noir as tast­ing “like angels for­nic­at­ing in your mouth” – and try and get in his good books in case he really is in with Google. Watch my par­ents try and win half a case of wine with their awe­some dan­cing skills again. But one sug­ges­tion: don’t try and walk on rolling bar­rels. You will just fall off, hit your head and cry.

Plenty to wine about

There comes a time in every­one’s life when they feel the need to leave Wel­ling­ton, even if it’s just for one day. No really, it hap­pens! And a par­tic­u­larly good day to get out of town, if you don’t like the col­our green, or pota­toes, or Guiness or drunk­en fake-Irish louts, would be this Sat­urday. So where to go to get away? How about a wine fest­iv­al – after we all know, that wine drink­ers are a bet­ter class of people than beer drink­ers – some­where out of town but still nearby?

Well it just so hap­pens that March 17 is your lucky day, with not one but two fest­ivals tak­ing place nearby. There’s the Wair­ar­apa Wines Har­vest Fest­iv­al in Glad­stone (as well as the Inter­na­tion­al Bal­loon Fiesta and the day before Round the Vines, and also the Great Wel­ling­ton Wine and Food Fest­iv­al in Paekakariki. So how do you choose which one to go to when they both cost $25 for an entrance fee? Take our quiz to find out.