METRONEWS
© New Zealand Broadcasting School 2024

Central city Beercyle tours brings locals back into town

Talia Mimilo
beercyle2
Christchurch Beercycle  Maddy Lloyd

New Zealand's only party bike pub crawl has recently come to Christchurch, and is already making waves.

25- year- old entrepreneur Nick Wilson came across what would be his new business project while travelling abroad.

"I'm a fully qualified lawyer. And I was like, I don't really want to work in a law firm, I'm still too young to be stuck behind a desk, so I went travelling for a year."

Nick saw the Beercycles and immediately knew he had to bring these to New Zealand.

"I thought, this is awesome, New Zealand needs them. So I thought I'd do a bit of research and bought a couple then started them in New Zealand," Wilson said.

He brought the Beercycles to Auckland and Wellington over a year ago, and then extended the pub crawl craze to Christchurch in early February, which is building pace already.

"Everyone that's come along has loved it and it's got such a good reception from the bars and everyone on the street, it's pretty cool," Wilson said. 

BEERCYCLE IMAGE 2
Christchurch Beercycle Tour Maddy Lloyd

Owner Nick Wilson is pleased to be able to bring the initiative to Christchurch with the rebuild growing rapidly and said the response has been overwhelming.

"When you're on it and we drive past people, everyone always gets their cameras out and takes photos and waves and yells, it's been a really positive response from everybody," Wilson said. 

Nick Wilson hopes that Beercyle will help get locals back into the city centre after a long earthquake recovery period.

"We've had a few people come on and a lot of them have said they haven't gone to a bar in the centre of the city since the earthquake. I feel like the vibe's coming back and I hope the bike helps bring even just a little bit of the vibe back to the main bit of the city."