A recent short break in New Caledonia

The pub was absolutely packed. Somehow the management had booked a beer club and a wine tasting on the same night. But there is a canny management here. They took one look at me, knew what I was there for, and found us a seat. 

We spent Sunday on the Orkneys starting at John O’Groats which has a sign 12,800 miles to Bluff.

A bus trip through the Borders. The first stop was the Scottish Birdlife Centre at North Berwick - a deserted beach in what was a small seaside resort but because of packaged holidays to Spain and such places it is not anymore.

Arriving in Edinburgh we had a piece of luck. The bus passed our hotel and stopped just around the corner on Princes Street. So we were able to get off, book in, and before we knew it we were in the city.

Just out of Aberdeen it started to sleet, but no snow. We started with a good lunch in a pub with the strange name of Howff where I had an interesting beer Red Squirrel from Arran Brewery.

On Friday we had a late lunch in the Barrowboy and Banker in Borough, a Fuller’s pub that has done a very good conversion of an old bank building, similar to one we visited in Birmingham last year

We are in the UK on a search for Brewdog. It will start in London, move to Newcastle, get very intense in Scotland over three weeks, and if not successful come back to London.

With a bit of spare time and some forward planning it's possible to sample a great range of Kiwi craft beer in the top half of the South Island. An Easter family holiday, combined with the SOBA ‘Weekend Away’, provided a good opportunity for me to get round some quality South Island brews.