Raising Money While Raising a Beer

It is a fundraising event to help nurses, which features the launch of a new beer. Unique, fun and for a great cause, it’s happening at the Eagle Hotel in Bluff on Saturday 30 April.

It will be a world first as the southernmost brewery and the southernmost hop garden have jointly produced the southernmost beer, and have linked up in the southernmost town in New Zealand, to launch the brew while raising funds for ‘Tea Time – Me Time’, a cause that Vicki Yarker-Jones (aka Vicki Purple) one of the people behind the southernmost commercial hop garden at St Augustine Church in Tuapeka Mouth, is most passionate about.

Vicki, a nurse, educator, counsellor, and an avid steam-punker, started ‘Tea Time – Me Time’ to promote self-care among nurses, which is her doctoral topic through Otago Polytechnic/CapableNZ. “Nurses care for people, but they also need to care for themselves,” says Vicki. “Tea Time – Me Time raises funds to buy biscuits, cakes and more plus we collect cups, saucers and plates for gift bags filled with goodies for morning and afternoon teas for nurses. It acknowledges the work that they do, and it’s all about nurses taking a break to focus on some relaxing time over a cuppa”.

Vicki and husband, Tom Jones, grow many varieties of hops, including the amazing Tangerine Dream and Kent Golding at their former church, while 4 Mates Brewery brewed the beer at Otatara in Invercargill. To launch the beer and raise funds for ‘Tea Time – Me Time’ the Eagle Hotel has purchased a 50 litre keg of the XPA (Xtra Pale Ale) brew which Tom says will appeal to both Pale Ale and Pilsener drinkers. They will sell drinks from the keg throughout the event with the proceeds all going back to the charity, and there will be bonus auctions too.

Tom has been brewing since the mid–80’s, and for 6 years from 1998 did a variety of jobs at Emerson’s Brewery in Dunedin.

Vicki says the event would not have been possible if not for Russell at the Eagle Hotel, Scott at 4 Mates Brewery, Jane Stanton at the Seriously Good Chocolate Company and Bluff local Frazer Murdoch. “It was Frazer who brought the event to Bluff,” she says.

So, buy a beer, try the new brew, enjoy a great night out and raise money for the hard-working nurses of New Zealand so that they can take time to self-care.

It could not be easier and what a way to help out. Be at the Eagle Hotel in Bluff at From 7pm onwards on Saturday 30 April, buy a beer or two and bid on our mystery auction items, and you will be doing your bit towards a worthy cause.