Big night: Ben Calder carts locals and tourists around Queenstown bars each week

“I went on a lot of pub crawls while I was overseas and it was a really good way to meet people,” Calder says.

“There have been things like this in the past that haven’t worked but I wouldn’t be doing this if I knew it wasn’t going to be successful.”

Calder launched his venture on December 21 last year and has had about 2000 punters on the crawl since.
His maximum is 40 partygoers per night.

He kicks off at the Buffalo Club each night then moves through another four bars – switching between Revolver, Altitude, Winnies, Frasers, Chicos and The World.

For $25, people get led around Queenstown to five bars where they get a free drink and spend 45 minutes refuelling before heading on to the next one.

Calder’s quick to add it’s not about binge drinking – and he and his staff are all first aid trained in case anything goes wrong. Nothing has, he says.

“I got in contact with the local police and showed them full safety strategies and plans and they were really supportive and offered me advice,” he says.

“I’ve also had to make sure I build really good relationships with all the bars – it’s been so successful and growing.”

Despite his age, Calder has many other strings to his bow, including running parent company Think Big New Zealand where he’s a “personal development facilitator”.

When not cruising the bars every Tuesday to Saturday, the mad-keen outdoorsman coaches people in either skydiving or how to deal with life situations.

“I like to keep moving,” he laughs. “I think you’ve just got to keep a level head and things fall into place.
“A big challenge has been changing some people’s negative ideas about past [pub crawl nights] which have failed.

“I’ve just been trying to make sure they know I’m here for the long term.
“I’m not just here to make a quick buck then move on.”