CHRIS GEAR
Chris Gear’s professional journey spans aviation, hospitality, and now distilling, unified by precision, discipline and an appetite for reinvention.
From flying aircraft to building brands, his approach has remained consistent: strip ideas back to first principles and execute them well. That mindset now underpins an award-winning distillery grounded in craftsmanship, authenticity and entrepreneurial clarity.
Chris started school at Halswell Primary before moving on to Lincoln High, where he once imagined a future as a doctor, lawyer, or pilot. With hindsight, he’s glad those plans didn’t all stick. He’s not a great fan of blood, so medicine was out, and after subsequently marrying a lawyer, he’s sure that path wasn’t for him either.
Instead, he fell into aviation. He was asked by the Air Force to attend a multiple-day PERSEL (personnel selection) group. Along with aptitude, leadership and group exercise testing, he says he had to do a hands-and-feet coordination testing exercise called the SMA4, or more colloquially known as the ‘Monkey Box’. The test was done twice, with the second attempt designed to assess if the candidate learned from the first. Chris admits he was so nervous on his first attempt that his leg was shaking uncontrollably on one of the pedals, so improving on the second attempt was almost inevitable.
Soon after, Chris got a call saying a position had opened and they wanted him to sign up immediately. The catch was two years of training, no guarantee of passing, and the risk of missing his chance to go to university if it didn’t work out. Nonetheless, at 17, he joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force and went on to fly jets, helicopters and maritime patrol aircraft. Highlights included peacekeeping missions in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea and supporting scientific research in Antarctica over the period of several years.
After his military service, Chris moved to Asia as a commercial pilot for a career spanning just under 20 years. By 39, he was a Boeing 777 wide-body Captain and living in Hong Kong with his wife and two children. He recalls long-haul flying as being less glamorous than it sounds - the benefits of travelling the world are obvious, but the accompanying jetlag and fatigue are the price that is paid for the privilege. However, long-haul suited him as it meant intense periods of flying followed by more meaningful periods off, which allowed time for other projects.
Outside aviation, Chris has had a 30-year passion for coffee. He collects 1950s-era cool Italian coffee machines and has roasted his own coffee for two decades – at one point owning a small coffee roasting company in Hong Kong. This progressed further into a desire for a coffee shop in New Zealand, which morphed into White House Black café/restaurant - a beautifully restored late 1800s homestead in Halswell, which won a Christchurch Civic Trust Award. It was a two-year mission to renovate, strengthen and fit out the old building, involving a lot of hard work, particularly travelling from a homebase around 9500km away.
After returning to New Zealand in 2021 and wrapping up his flying career, Chris turned his attention to distilling. He started pottering around at home on a small still. Not long afterwards he bought a property in the SALT District at 3 Ash Street, just behind the Dux Central and only a stone’s throw from the new stadium. The fit out began in earnest of what was essentially an empty shell. He covered the windows for privacy, but as he came and went, he found himself chatting with locals. Although he’d only told one person he might be making gin, word quickly spread, with people asking - “Are you that pilot doing gin?” As it turned out, these comments were the catalyst for making the distillery idea a reality.
As the distillery took shape, Chris decided his gin needed some street cred, which quickly came in 2025 in the form of winning Gold at the New Zealand Spirits Awards and Silver at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. He says developing the gin wasn’t straightforward and required stripping everything back to ‘first principles’. Being in possession of but a singular palate, he recruited three aviation-centric friends as his “Ginny Pigs” to broaden the tasting process. Starting with 50 botanicals, they narrowed it down to just eleven, forming the base of his award-winning Gin.
Chris has crafted a wonderful distillery, infusing his aviation career into his vision. His 4 Bars Distillery & Flight Lounge draws reference to the Captain’s rank of 4 BARS, as worn on their shoulder epaulettes. Gin Clear Day, the quirky name of his gin, is a term coined by WWII pilots to describe the perfectly clear skies of ideal flying conditions. The bespoke bottle is full of surprises too, but that’s best revealed in person.
We love it when people infuse their life experiences into their business model, celebrating achievements as well as adding personality and authenticity in a way that truly sets them apart and personalises their offerings.
If you’re looking for a great experience, this is a cool distillery where you can host events for up to 100 people, or head out with friends for a tasting in a relaxed, welcoming setting. Online bottle sales and distillery opening hours are available on the website. www.4bars.co.nz
