Building a distillery in Ohakune, New Zealand wasn’t the romantic lifestyle dream people imagine. It was paperwork, concrete dust, compliance meetings, and learning the language of fire ratings, flow rates, and hazardous atmosphere plans required under New Zealand regulations.

When you decide to build a compliant distillery in New Zealand, especially in a small mountain town beneath Mount Ruapehu, you don’t just buy a still and turn it on.

You deal with fire regulations and hazardous atmosphere plans required by the professionals and including WorkSafe NZ, which in real terms means explosion zones and explosion-proof equipment with a serious price tag. You deal with ventilation requirements designed to meet distillery compliance NZ standards, even when a strong mountain wind barrels through the building with the doors wide open.

Electrical sign-offs take time and patience. Council consents can arrive at double the amount you budgeted. Then there are the formal approvals: New Zealand Customs excise approval, food safety licences, and alcohol licences. They overlap in places, but they are very separate chapters in the process of starting a distillery in New Zealand.

Bunding, drainage, waste disposal, and dangerous goods storage are all part of hazardous substances compliance in NZ. Not glamorous, but absolutely essential.

Every step had a hoop, and usually another one sitting just behind it.

There were moments I wondered if the compliance list was longer than the ingredient list. And then there was the ingredient list itself: research, reliable New Zealand suppliers, storage requirements, botanical trials, documentation, testing. The list goes on.

People see the bottle on the shelf at a craft distillery in Ohakune. They don’t necessarily see the four years behind it. Two years planning the build, one year becoming a qualified distiller in New Zealand, and one year constructing the distillery and waiting for final sign-off.

Building something in a small town like Ohakune means you are not anonymous. The builders, plumbers, electricians, landscapers, label designers, and website designers are locals. That matters. You wire it properly. You vent it properly. You build it to meet every New Zealand distillery regulation because this isn’t just a business, it’s part of the place.

Ruapehu Distillery sits beneath an active volcano.  Mount Ruapehu now looks down on a distillery built in an environment that is tough and unpredictable. The weather tests you. Timelines stretch and costs creep. But when the still finally turns on and the first spirit flows, you know you earned it.