Brewers from around the country descended on Wellington’s Town Hall for the annual Beervana - a festival of all things brewed…
Another BrewNZ event last week was the Beer vs. Wine Dinner - an evening catered by Ruth Pretty at the Great Hall at Massey, featuring matched beer and wine with each course. (Surprisingly…beer won. Did I mention it was organised by the Brewers Guild?)
For a guy who’s allergic to beer (it’s the barley), I sure spent a lot of time around it over the past week…here’s a slideshow of one night, the Brew NZ Awards for the country’s top breweries, hosted by Paul Mercurio at the Duxton on Thursday!
Photographing @beervanaNZ this afternoon…and tweets about it go up on the giant screen at Town Hall!
RT @Rove1974: I don’t remember this show. I feel my life has failed me. http://youtu.be/8-qOzAWyRx4 (Wow…I never dared dream so big.)
Upstate New York
For a change, on the way back to Toronto we decided to go around the south side of Lake Ontario, through the Adirondacks and upstate New York. I’d made a couple of small visits to Syracuse while at university in Kingston, but never really looked around - and the lure of George Eastman House in Rochester (one of the world’s great collections of photography and motion pictures) was pretty compelling.
But the best discovery on the way would have to be Hemlock Hall in Blue Mountain Lake, NY; we stumbled onto this historic house at about 10pm while looking for accommodation (of any kind!), and Paul the host was so incredibly welcoming - he made us dinner, a gourmet breakfast, and gave us our choice of rooms (though he recommended the cabin by the brook where he’d come as a child!). Great little place!
RT @grab_one: Wellington - Welcome on board! $3 movie tickets at the Embassy today - valid for 10 months! 1 per person. http://bit.ly/ae0TIN
Montreal
It’s been sixteen years since my last visit to the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, and this time the race was a doozy - but it was also great to just walk around the city, see the sights and do a bit of shopping. Montreal’s great - so different from any other North American city, and one place I always wish I’d had a reason to live. (Okay, maybe not in winter…but even when it’s icy, it’s beautiful!)
Montreal 10 - Images by Robert Catto
Retrocity!
Ah, Retrocity. Such a treat to finally get to see them live in concert, much less twice! If you haven’t come across them before, it’s worth checking out their recordings on their website; and have a look while you do - that’s right, not one of them is playing an instrument. Everything you’re hearing is done with voices…
Retrocity 10 - Images by Robert Catto
Nova Scotia
We were also able to spend a few days driving from Halifax to Cape Breton, and going on walks around the Cape Breton Highlands National Park area; it’s another beautiful part of Canada, but quite different from Newfoundland’s rugged rocky coast.
Nova Scotia 10 - Images by Robert Catto
