New Plymouth Buildings

The Nice Boutique Hotel - today and 11 years ago

Peggy Gordon's Celtic Pub

Beer with the bro

Kind of apt that I was at Brothers Beer with my brother eh! Here we're trying out the Stone & Wood Cloud Catcher APA and the Zeffer Apple Crumble cider. Both very, very tasty.

Braveheart

So I'm in this Irish pub in New Zealand. I've always thought that this place does a pretty good job of being an authentic pub that could be in Britain somewhere. Yes, I know... probably Ireland, but the decor of the inside is for the most part catering to Britain as a whole. When I was there I asked the guy next to me if he was from the UK and he gave me an "Aye'. I asked him, "does this place seem like a pub that could exist on the other side of the world?" He though about it but decided that it didn't. It turns out that even though the look inside isn't bad, it's just the fact that it is in New Zealand that prevents him from accepting the illusion.
When I was having a pint, I kept looking at this poster. It's been a while since the movie came out and it's now regarded as one of the least historically accurate movies out there. Also, it's an Australian actor playing a Scottish character in an American movie on a poster in an Irish pub in New Zealand. Does that make this object tacky and cliche? Now that the Scotland independence vote is about a week away, it's probably more relevant than it's been in years.

The Occidental, Vulcan Lane, Auckland

One of Auckland's oldest pubs, built around 1870 on the corner of Vulcan Lane and Queen Street. At some stage an Art Deco building was built in front obscuring part of it's curving facade. From what I can find it was built by an American sailor and modelled on San Francisco's Occidental Hotel. It also housed a museum of 'absorbing interesting specimens of the pictorial art, defunct wonders and comical conceits'

According to the Historic Places trust the 'establishment was very popular with merchants, traders, speculators, artists, litterateurs, sportsmen and even 'the loafer''. I frequented it in the 80's when it was a hangout for students and punks, and today you're likely to join business people and tourists at the bar for one of the many Belgian beers on offer.