Who are Herne? Find out more about brewers behind the The Hunter...

Happy hunting

We are currently serving The Hunter brewed by Herne Brewing Company.

If you haven't tried it yet it's an ESB (that's Extra Special Bitter), a true ale made from UK malts and bitterly hopped with UK Goldings and the deliciously aromatic Styrian Goldings for aroma. 

It's hoppy, but not as hoppy or bitter as an IPA, which makes it perhaps a little more drinkable and accessible for some people, whilst still being tasty!

Herne Brewery are contract brewers who brew at Wanaka Beerworks whilst being based in Tapanui, West Otago. Tom, the brewer behind Herne (known in the industry as "Tom the Pom"), has been in the beer business since 1998 when he began working at Emerson's and worked there for six years. After this he went on to found the Green Man Brewery; then in 2010 Tom left Green Man and along with his wife founded Crafty Beers. Crafty Beers do various events including formally recognised Brewer's Guild education and Herne Brewing.

The Hunter is the inaugural brew from Herne so we are excited to have this first brew on tap at Atlas. The Hunter appears to be going down well with other people too, with Yvonne Yonkin from Food TV's Thirsty Work saying,
" I love the beer, seriously, it's fantastic!".

Herne Brewing Company are looking to increase their range over the next few months so keep an eye out, in the meantime you can call in for a drop of The Hunter at Atlas.

Herne Brewing Company | The Hunter | 5% | $9 pint


As always, please enjoy responsibly

New Evening Menu - coming soon!

 Summer evenings at Atlas... *contented sigh*

As the seasons change so does the Atlas menu! We're are getting ready to release our new daytime and evening menus.  Here's a little sneak peek of what's going to be on the evening menu just to whet the appetite!

Tapas

Crispy squid with fried capers and a red pepper & chilli mayonnaise | $9 GF 

Steak sliders with onion and and blue cheese cream | $8.5

Mushroom arancini with aioli and salsa verde |  $8.5 V

Peking duck rolls with spring onions and hoisin sauce | $9.5 GF 

Grilled prawns with laksa broth and glass noodles | $8.5 GF 

Pork belly with apple glaze and sesame seeds | $8 GF

Breads with olive oil and dukkah | $8 V

Slow-roasted tomatoes with feta and olives in a pastry tart | $8.5 V

Edamame beans with salt | $7 V GF

House-cured beef with smoked beetroot | $9


Mains

Home-made beef sausage with kumara mash and onion rings | $18.5

Rump steak with chips and salad | $19.5 GF

Whole roasted sole with miso glaze chips and salad | $18.5 GF

Slow-cooked chicken in tomato, lemon and olive sauce with mash | $18.50


Hungry now? We'll let you know when the new menu is ready to go!

Goodbye to an Atlas great

Round one

We've been really lucky to have absolutely stellar staff since we opened the doors at Atlas in 2009. We recently said goodbye to one of our longest-serving staff members who has now headed off on new adventures.

Hailing from England originally, Emma was travelling around NZ when her car broke down leaving her stranded in Queenstown (not a bad place to get stranded!). Emma decided to stick around and thanks to that auto-mobile malfunction we've been lucky enough to have her working at Atlas for the last four years.

After such a long time we're sure that many of you, like us, were sad to say goodbye to Emma. 

Emz poured her last Atlas pints on Hallowe'en and, as is the time honoured tradition, was ceremoniously thrown into the lake at the end of her shift. Twice. 

So in case you missed it here are the snaps.


Thank you for all your work over the past few years, Emma. We will miss you and all of us wish you the best of luck with whatever you do next!

Getting ready for round two

After four years, one dunk was never going to be enough.

Checking in with the Atlas Athletes - Adam Barwood

Podium finish - Adam in the top spot 

We were happy to support a few local athletes over the Winter season so we thought we'd check in and see how their respective season's went and what the snowy North has in store for them. Next up, Adam Barwood who is now skiing and competing over in Colorado as this post goes online. 

Hello Adam, how's things? 

Good, thanks!

Give us a little summary of your 2013 NZ Winter Season. 

My New Zealand season was pretty full-on with lots of gym work before on snow training started. To start off I had a couple of days at Coronet mid-June before heading up to Mt Hutt for a week of technical training. It was a busy season of races with about 20 starts altogether. My first races were held at Cardrona and Treble Cone. The season also saw me over in Australia, skiing in for four day in slalom races at Thredbo in the ANC Continental Cup. After this it was straight back to Coronet for Winter Games. 

Tell us what was your highlight of the Winter was and is there an achievement that you are particularly proud of?

All up if was a pretty successful season for me, achieving a few goals and personal best results. I won the National Championship titles in slalom, giant slalom, overall men and also took out the Snowsports Alpine Athlete of the Year award. One of my highlights was gaining a personal best result in slalom and it just happened to be my 21st birthday too!

What countries will you be visiting this NH Winter? What are the places you look forward to in particular? Are there any events you are going to that you haven't yet skiied?

I left NZ on the 1st November and started training at Loveland. It's really cold and the high altitude (over 10,000ft) takes a bit of adjustment at first. One of the main races I have coming up will be some of the NorAm Cup races, these races are part of the qualifying criteria for the coming Olympics. The ream I'll be racing in will be made up of Australian and New Zealand national team members and we'll be training and racing in Loveland until we head to Austria, arriving there on Christmas Eve. Whilst I'm in Europe I'll go to Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Croatia and Slovenia. I'm on the shortlist for the Sochi 2014 Olympics so I might even get to Russia!


Describe your best run of the season. 

It would have to be the race at Treble Cone on my birthday. Steep course, hard snow, a fairly clean run and a personal best!

As someone who travels a lot you must have a few tunes on your iPod to help you pass the time at airports. What are you listening to at the moment? Have you got any guilty pop secrets?

I seem to listen to pretty much anything that fits the moment. If I had a genre it would probably be rock or alternative. Lately I've been listening to a little Mumford and Sons and The National.

Do you ever get nervous before events? How do you get in the zone?

I do get a little nervous at times but I'm also getting used to it after competing in so many races. I have a bit of a morning and warm up routine to help get me in a good state of mind.

Final question: You're heading to Atlas for a feed, who would be your four dream people to accompany you to dinner? Can be anyone dead or alive.

1. Dalai Lama, 2.Hermann Maier, 3. Will Ferrel, 4. Steve Jobs

The best of luck from all of us at Atlas for your Northern Hemisphere Winter season! Would love to see the Dalai Lama at Atlas too...

Beer Update - Mischievous Kea IPA

Mischievous.

We will soon be pouring a new IPA from Altitude Brewing.

Altitude are a Queenstown-based company "providing New Zealand craft beers to the discerning beer drinking community". Well, that sounds like us at Atlas!

The Mischievous Kea IPA has a distinct Kiwi flavour. It's brewed using all Kiwi ingredients - the hops are from Marlborough and the malts from the Canterbury Plains.

With this carefully selected blend of Kiwi components you can expect a vibrant hop profile with fragrant, tropical nose. The palette is also vibrant and mouth-filling with mandarin and orange flavours balanced by a toasty sweetness from the malts. The finish has a lingering sweetness.

Sounds good and it'll be on tap very soon!

Altitude Brewing | Mischievous Kea IPA | 5.5% | $9.50 per pint 

Please enjoy responsibly

Season of Shred - Limited Tees available at Atlas

Ready to shred

If you weren't able to attend the Season of Shred opening party we held the beginning of October to celebrate the start of the MTB season then you missed out of a fantastic night. But fear not - we'll holding another party next year and, in the meantime, we still have Tees for sale so you can wear one as you shred!

There's limited numbers available and you can buy them from the bar at Atlas for only $20.

Thanks again to everyone who made Season of Shred such a great night. We raised a whopping $4100 for Queenstown Mountain Bike Club The top two prizes went to:

1. Scott Voltage DH bike from H&J Outdoor World - Helen Watling
2. Two days of hire from Queenstown Bike Taxis - Tom Hey & Jarrah Healy

Huge thanks to everyone who donated prizes to the raffle - your support and generosity was and is appreciated. So massive thanks to the following:

Alpine for the heli-biking
Kore Skis for the custom skis
H&J Outdoor World for the Go Pro
Fallon Photography for the half day shoot
Pinewood Lodge for the 2 nights of accomodation and bike hire
Outside Sports for the bike mechanic kit
Spoke Magazine for the subscriptions
Quest for the clothing
Gibbston Valley Wines for the six bottle of vino donated
La Blond for the $100 voucher
Blue Shark Ltd for the MTB gear
Emily Cournane at Queenstown Sports and Therapeutic Massage for 2 x 1/2 massages

Thank you also to Quest and the volunteers who helped with selling T-shirts and tickets. Thank you to the QTMBC members who helped organise the event and to everyone who turned out, supported the night and made it such a good one!

THANKS!

Atlas Beer Cafe

Checking in with the Atlas Athletes - AndieG

We've been proud to support emerging Queenstown ski-talent, AndieG this NZ Winter. As the season is now over and we are firmly in Spring we thought we catch up with Andie to get the low-down on this year's slope-time and see what the rest of 2013 has in store for her.

AndieG with this season's hardware haul

Hello AndieG,

Hi guys!

How are you? Jumped in the lake yet?

I'm pretty good thanks, a little tired after a Winter of early starts although I am missing the snow already! Labour weekend is usual my first jump into the lake. Although, I didn't go in on Labour weekend this year as it was cold and snowing and my Mum wouldn't let me!

So, tell us a bit about your 2013 season. Give a summary of your time on skis this Winter. 

The season started well with some excellent snow early on with allowed us to train five day a week on snow - so no complaints from me there! The snow got a little thin late July/early August and once the international teams arrived lane space got a bit limited at Coronet Peak. So we moved over to The Remarkables and it was really fun to have a change of scenery. Once some new snow arrived it was back to Coronet Peak to train alongside the international teams. It was so cool and inspirational to be training alongside World Cup legends like Ted Ligety, Mikaela Shiffrin and Julia Mancuso! 

September was a busy month with the Southern Region Inter-Field races; a SuperG speed camp at Mt Hutt; the National Youth Series and in October I returned to Mt Hutt for the South Island Champs. September especially was was full-on! Mid-week training sessions and racing all over the South Island meant lots of early morning travel and late-night ski tuning with my Dad! 

What was the highlight of your NZ season?

Meeting Mikaela Shiffrin, Ted Ligety and Julia Mancuso was pretty awesome and training alongside them at Coronet Peak was really inspiring. Winning the U14 National SL Title jointly with my QAST team mate Alex Hull was really cool. We finished on equal points so share the title together this year. Also the Atlas sponsorship was cool too, I blown away when Davey offered to sponsor me for the Winter along with Adam and Alanna, I felt pretty humbled to be in such great company.

And do you have an achievement that you are particularly that you are proud of?

I have two! Winning the U14 Ladies SL Title - really pleasing as I focussed hard on my Slalom this Winter. I was also awarded the QAST U14 Most Improved Athlete Trophy. It was nice to know that my coaches recognised my hard work and it made my Mum and Dad proud too!


What was your best run of the NZ 2013 season, doesn't have to be race one. Describe it for us?

That's a tough one. I'd probably say my first two SL runs at the South Island Champs at Mt Hutt. The conditions and course suited me well and I felt confident and strong in both runs. Unfortunately I was just pipped to the post (0.4 sec) by my awesome team mate, Alice Robinson, who is a phenomenal skier and my benchmark.

What's on for Spring?

I'm back in the gym twice a week with my personal trainer, the awesome Braden Lee at Fight Science, focussing on mainly speed and cardio work. I'm also enjoying doing CX Core, RPM and Body Combat classes with my Mum at the Events Centre. I'm just making sure I'm getting plenty of rest, eating well, building strength and dropping a little weight before heading away to Squaw Valley in December. Just the usual conditioning stuff and, of course, dreaming about skiing again in a few weeks!

So you are heading North in December to train with the Squaw Valley ski team again. Tell us a bit about that?

Yes, we are going to Tahoe on December 20th for a White Christmas which is really exciting as I've not had a one before. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Olympic Village at Squaw Valley dressed up with lights and decorations. I'll be training 4/5 days with the Squaw Valley Ski team for 6 weeks and doing plenty of free skiing with my parents too, which will be really nice... if my Dad can keep up!


What's on your iPod at the moment?

Like everyone I'm pretty fixated on the success of Lorde so she's on high rotate. Then there's Taylor Swift who I've liked for a few years now. Then now and again I squeeze in a bit of Macklemore's Thriftshop to annoy my Dad or that crazy song - What does the Fox say?.


What's your favourite thing to eat in the States?

My favourite thing to eat anywhere is steak (Especially at Atlas) but I do like a classic North American Caesar Chicken Salad and a sneaky Oh Henry chocolate bar now and then. 

So you're off to Atlas with your folks for a steak and fries meal, who would be your four dream people to accompany you to dinner? Can be anyone. 

Mum and Dad so they can pay for dinner because I won't have enough money!
Mikaela Shiffrin, World SL Champion and my absolute idol and inspiration; Julia Mancuso, Olympic Gold Medalist and the person I respect the most in skiing; Ivan from Outside Sport, because he's known me since I was small and started skiing and knows everything about skiing and ski racing; Davey from Atlas so he can meet my idols and understand what motivates me.


Good luck with your training  and races in the States, AndieG! We're pretty envious. 

Thanks, I'll keep my blog updated every few days so you can check out my progress over the Summer. I hope you guys enjoy the Summer here in NZ and thanks again for the support and help this Winter!