Ice bar to be New Zealand's biggest

QUEENSTOWN, New Zealand, June 14 (UPI) -- Officials with an upcoming Below Zero bar in New Zealand said the establishment is planned to be the largest ice bar in that region of the world.

Blair Pattinson, general manager of the bar in Queenstown on Searle Lane, said the bar will be primarily made from 36 tons of ice imported from Las Vegas and will be the largest ice bar in New Zealand and Australia, the Otago Daily Times reported Tuesday.

"It's going to be the biggest and newest ice bar in Australasia, with things that have never been done in an ice bar before," Pattinson said. "It might be the biggest one in the southern hemisphere -- we can't find a bigger one so far."

Pattinson said a pair of Philadelphia ice sculptors responsible for ice bars in Las Vegas and Christchurch, New Zealand, will travel to Searle Lane to carve the ice.