By Rebecca Harris
Things are starting to heat up at the 42 Below Cocktail World Cup in Queenstown, with Australian team the ‘Shake-a-roos’ making it through to the grand final.
The team, consisting of Brisbane’s Kerin Golley, Melbourne’s Gregory Sanderson and Sydney’s Luke Redington will battle it out against seven other teams at the Grand Final Shake Off tomorrow afternoon.
Joining them will be Ireland, London, England, China/Hong Kong and two teams from the USA representing the East and West Coasts.
A final eighth team will be selected this afternoon following a bonus wildcard round in which non-qualifying teams will compete in a game of paintball on a mountain top.
For the last four days, competitors have battled it out in a series of extreme challenges in the surrounds of the New Zealand ski resort. They’ve bungy-jumped, blind free-poured, created mocktails and cocktails and even worked a shift at one of the local bars in town.
42 Below Queensland territory manager, Wade Tiller, said a standout was the ‘Ready, Steady, Shake’ component of the competition for which teams were given a mystery box of ingredients – ranging from lemongrass to molasses — and five minutes to create an original cocktail.
“To come up with the drinks that they did, with those ingredients and in only five minutes – I think they produced some pretty amazing stuff,” Tiller said.
The top eight teams will be working hard tonight to come up with an original 42 Below cocktail that will wow the judges and earn them the title of 42 Below Cocktail Cup Champions for 2008.