A bar crawl around Wellington with Fat Freddy's Drop

From craft beer at Parrotdog to cocktails at Hawthorn Lounge, members of the internationally acclaimed band give their picks of the city's most thirst-quenching spots.

Backed by steep hills and teetering on a harbour at the bottom of New Zealand's North Island, Wellington is home to New Zealand's parliament and is also the country's capital of arts and culture. Its compact size forms a kind of civic petri dish, cultivating a thriving restaurant, bar and club scene, with live music woven throughout.

From its beginnings as a two-man-turntable-and-mic act in Wellington's '90s club scene, Fat Freddy's Drop slowly formed into the internationally acclaimed seven-piece band famous for its live performances that exhibit those jam-band roots. The band's musical experimentation is a reflection of the city's unique culture – Wellington staked a claim as a capital of craft beer early on, and quirkiness is a strong presence in its bar scene, from the grungy to the glamorous.