Bars find ways to beat law on liquor

Drinkers in Tauranga, Christchurch, Dunedin and Queenstown will be able to keep buying drinks until 3am tonight - but Good Friday rules will shut bars dead on midnight in the rest of the country.

Tauranga and the three southern cities are getting around a legal ban on liquor sales on Good Friday and Easter Sunday by granting special licences usually reserved for special events.

Tauranga says it is "business as usual" because it is hosting the national jazz festival and Dunedin says its large student population makes it "impractical" to close bars at midnight. It will also allow bars to open between 1pm and 7pm on Easter Sunday because of a Highlanders-Hurricanes rugby game starting at 2.35pm.

Queenstown liquor licensing inspector Tanya Surrey says: "The 'special event' has been labelled as being 'Easter in Queenstown'."

But Auckland City Council is sticking to the letter of the law and has granted only six special licences for Good Friday and Easter Sunday: the Rolling Stones concert at Western Springs, the Waiheke jazz festival, the national javelin championships and three weddings.

North Shore City will allow one bar to open for a Blues game against Western Australia's the Force at North Harbour Stadium tomorrow night and will let Albany's New Brew Tavern stay open past midnight tonight for its third birthday.

Manukau, Hamilton, Rotorua and Wellington are all upholding the same policy of midnight closing tonight and on Saturday, with only rare exceptions for special events.

Christchurch police are adopting yet another variation, allowing bars to stay open until 3am on both nights, but only for drinkers who get in by 1am.

Auckland City environmental health and licensing manager Chris Dee says the Sale of Liquor Act specifically bans liquor sales in hotels, taverns and liquor stores on Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Christmas Day, and on Anzac Day before 1pm.

"Our policy is in line with the majority of the rest of the country that we will not issue special licences to taverns and pubs past midnight on those days," he says. The different policy in Tauranga and the southern cities "does seem odd".