Inspired Adventures Part 3: Local Craft Beer.

I love craft. yes. I also love craft beer.

I was so excited to see on my first walk down Aro Valley a few meters from my front door. Not only an op shop, a vintage general store, a cafe, a park, a community centre, a community garden (or 4), AND a petrol station turned brewery! Meet: Garage Project.

Beautiful bottles to re-use. Beautiful range to sample.

 My choice after a lot of sampling, the Pilsner: Hops on Pointe. 

A lovely collaboration with the Royal NZ Ballet.

The crew were all super friendly and passionate about crafting beer. Experimenting with flavours (clearly, just look at their whiteboard range) and encouraging re-fills. & why not stroll round the corner to re-fill. It all made so much sense. Aro Valley is so full of locally made. I love it and cant wait to head back for more. Support Local. Shop Local. Yum.

Inspired Adventures Part 2: Wunderbiking around Welly

A very clever thing to do is to visit a clever idea in Wellington. Visit the Wunderbikes

and of course book yourself a bike. For a day, or for your whole stay. Wellington Wunderbikes is an awesome community project at the Aro Valley Community Centre where they have shooshed up some bikes to lend out to visitors. Giving more 2wheeling access to folk to discover this beautiful city. Make a note to take something warm with you so you don't get caught out in the windy welly weather change like we did. There are a few soft hills, so best find your gears before leaving. Celia and I had a great adventure to get lost in Newtown on an op shop excursion, we missioned out to Island bay and had a leisurely ride along the gorgeous waterfront to Lyall bay to pick up a bike pal. The ride home was a lot easier once Celia & I had got to know each other better on the lovely big hill at 5 oclock traffic. Read more about Wunderbikes here (see Celia looking slick), and check out their facebook page here.

Meet Celia. The beauty. With hidden gears.

Newtown,  checking out the bike boys in the bike cafe across the road.

Op shopping something we both very much love to do.

Down by the boardwalk, down by the sea. We stopped to watch some planes land.

Making pals at the beach. Wanting to go swimming. Sunny Wellington!!

Celia made me selfie.

4.50pm. Sheltering in a cave. Lyall bay. Shivering immensely.

Inspired adventures Part 1: WOMAD

Oh golly it's been a long long while hasn't it just!? & coming off a jam packed week of adventures I have got this urge to blog about it. gah! So many incredible people, places & experiences that I really just want to share out to the world and say HEYo! Get a LOADA THISSSS!

I reckon it might be because for the first time in a long time I packed my bags just for me Sarah Lancaster, not necessarily Sarah Sew Love (though I know I am never not wearing that hat) I jumped into a car with 2 strangers off to a WOMAD music festival with a forecast for rain and all I had planned was to dance.  .....Then I boarded a plane back to one of my favourite cities excited to see friends faces again and to explore, wander, eat & photograph. Perhaps it has in fact been an inspiration week. A scheduled one at that between booked workshops & epic festival workloads - I definitely have needed to shake it out and just be me for a wee bit.

& so here's to it ... & some great things recently seen: Part 1: WOMAD

 

One way to make sure people absolutely love a grey skied festival is to throw the forecast to 'cyclone' for the week prior. We had a few showers, but plenty of sunshine and it was mostly dry underseat. The food market was enormous with so so many choices, and every day a new stall seemed to be the mad popular one with the most enormous queue, as if word got round that you HAD to try that one. 

I saw the lovely Glory Days team and their stunning storm proof makeovers and up-do's SO GRAND! Their latest issue has a great write up about the amazing the incredible the jivey Pokey Lafarge. WHO was the absolute HIT of Womad festival. Not just for me, but for many others and reviewers too. Here's my favourite from the band. Alongside Pokey, there was also amazingness of the usual Latin Aotearoa, Weird Together and Kimbra... but highlights for me would have been Mokoomba, Red Baraat and La Chiva Gantiva really got the kids a skankin'. A festival that seemed all about the music for me and I loved it that way. Refreshing for someone who is usually all about the festival costumes & cider.

Next up: WELLINGTON!