Different places in New Zealand are associated with different things: Kaikoura – crayfish, Raglan – surfing, Nelson – art, Auckland – complaining.
The same is true in a musical context; particular sites and areas are linked with particular types of music.

Tauranga, as will come as no surprise to anyone in the city at Easter, is associated with jazz. Particularly if you're a musician, when you're travelling round the country and run into others of the musical persuasion, it's likely that when they find out your from here they will say something like: 'Tauranga – that's where they have the jazz festival, isn't it?”
I always think there is a certain irony to that since, outside the jazz festival, Tauranga isn't what you would call a jazz-crazy city. There are a couple of weekly gigs by regular bands and the monthly Jazz Society bashes at the Greerton RSA (formerly Faheys), but that's about it – I can't, for instance, remember when I last heard a young jazz band gigging in this town in the same way that in Wellington you often see hot young jazz guns out from the music school there playing around the city.
And those Jazz Society gigs… They're very nice affairs, more often than not featuring top class music, and they attract around 80-100 people, the same as similar jazz clubs in Auckland. Yet over in Hamilton, where the occasional attempts to organise a jazz festival there have not been hugely successful, their Jazz Club similarly gets together once a month and there are regularly in excess of 200 attendees. It is, in fact, the biggest regular Jazz Club in the country.
Moving on to blues, you would think that the best chance of a successful Blues Club would be in Auckland. After all, that's where the most people are and, realistically, most of the blues bands. But it's not so. Every so often someone gets together a group to form a Blues Club with regular gigs – it's happening at the moment – but it always seems to last about six months before people lose interest.
Staking its claim as the Blues Capital of New Zealand is, slightly surprisingly, Rotorua.
It's not a particularly large town and much of its size relies on the tourist industry, so it's really anyone's guess why the blues has proved so popular, but since 2006, the BOP Blues Club – as they call themselves – has had monthly, and now often twice monthly, gatherings and regularly fills their base at the Belgian Bar on Arawa Street, with a couple of hundred people packing in and musicians coming from all over to play.
They also have a one-day blues festival in February and are just gearing up for their big mid-winter event, previously known as Blues Week, but now rechristened the Rotorua Bluesfest. It kicks off next week and there is a lot of good music on offer.
The full programme runs from Wednesday, June 2, through to a couple of afternoon gigs on the Monday of Queen's Birthday weekend, June 7, and as well as bands from around the country there are also workshops and a guitar contest for teenagers. It's well worth a trip over (less than an hour isn't far) especially on the weekend when there are bands playing all afternoon and night.
On the Saturday you could start at 11.30am and take in everything from the festival's two Australian guests to a concert from swing maestros Hot Club Sandwich and a two hour blast of rhythm and blues from Tauranga's own Brilleaux.
The two visitors from Australia are Dean Haitani, a young guitarist with a great reputation, and Alison Penney, who I've got on my Must See list. She is a blues pianist and singer based in Sydney who specialises in New Orleans styles and is also a highly-regarded songwriter. Last year she performed the considerable and prestigious feat of being named The Sydney Blues Society Performer of the Year. That gave her the chance to compete in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis earlier this year, which is pretty high cotton, whoever you are.
And there's lots more. You can check it out at www.bopblues.com/bluesfest