Christchurch - food and coffee

During our 1.5 day stay in Christchurch we tried to fit in as much coffee (and food) as we could. Here are the places that we went to.

Christchurch Farmers Market

Riccarton Bush (near Riccarton Mall)

After a bit of a walk, we found the markets in a very nice park. It could be the season but there wasn't much fresh produce as it had expected but there was a lot of food. German sausages, Gyoza, macarons, bread, fudge, Thai and Japanese food...

It was really nice to get out of the cbd and see how relaxed people are. Nice way to enjoy a sunny Saturday.

Crafted Coffee Company

Re:start mall, Cashel Street

Coffee is ok here. Food is nice. Nice decor, brings a bit of colour back. Great seating area.

Caffeine Laboratory

3 locations- Re:start mall, corner of Walker Street & Montreal street, New Regent Street

After walking to Walker/Montreal street from Central Station, we were a bit gutted that we couldn't find it. It was by accident that we found one of their stores in Cashel Mall (we were so happy). Turns out they have a small cafe on New Regent Street.. Which is right outside our apartments... and which we walked to in the morning but totally missed...

It also turns out that the Walker/Montreal street one only operates on Mon-Fri out of a black container.

Best coffee in Christchurch (or the ones we have tried). Seating is limited at both places but staff is very friendly. There is a great selection of food at Nee Regent Street.

Re:start Mall

New Regent Street

Sakimoto

Cathedral Junction

After having not a luck of finding recommended places to eat that was in close vicinity to our apartment.. We decided to head downstairs to this little Japanese place.

Food was great, fresh and well presented. Prices were pretty good too. Very yum Japanese food. Staff was a bit harder to understand. 

C1 Espresso

High Street

After seeing it on Campbell Live and have been told they have great coffee we decided to give it a try after dinner.

Great quirky place. Very creative use of items such as a sewing machine used as a water tap. The sliders were great $20 for a choice of 3. There were cabinet food as well. The menu for the morning is better with a wide range of breakfast items. Coffee is pretty good. 

You can sense that they have a very different perspective of Christchurch and their view on what is happening (or not happening) with the rebuild.

Black Betty

Madras Street

A very family friendly cafe - more like one we would see in Auckland. Great seating. Great food. Coffee is pretty good too. I ordered their Mac n cheese and was very delicious. It wasn't like a typical one where it was just Mac n sauce. Definitely a must go. Great selection of cabinet food and menu options too.

One thing to really commend the Christchurch coffee places is their ability to do latte art with soy milk. It's a rarity here in Auckland for me to not only have great coffee but also someone who can make nice art.. Instead of a blob that I always get. 

I can't wait until I go back to Christchurch again to try out some of their other restaurants... When it's not so cold!😄

Christchurch - a city of resilience

Our latest trip was going down to Christchurch for 1.5 days with my sister and brother in law. As with any trip, each experience has been amazing and left us with different feelings.

We often see news stories on Christchurch and the people who live there and I guess after 2+ years, we sort of got used to it.  Slow recovery, lack of engineers or people willing to move there, housing shortages, insurance battles, government battles, vandalism and the list goes on. It was only until we got there that we really felt what it was like.

The CBD was literally dead. Cafés and restaurants were open to the few tourists who were around.. And random parts of the CBD would have more signs of life like the Re-start mall. All you could see are damaged buildings, holes, rubble, fences and abandoned shops that still had stock or offices with their gear left behind. It was very heartbreaking to walk around and see this. The suburbs are apparently even worse with empty homes that were once filled with families.

However, it was encouraging to see that amongst all this, the people of Christchurch are trying to bring life back to the garden city. There is amazing artwork on the buildings, small interactive areas such as the sound mat where you can play your own music and it gets blasted on massive speakers, colour is everywhere, and there is a group called the Plant Gang (https://m.facebook.com/plantgang?_rdr) who go around empty sites and plant to make the city cleaner and more attractive.

Despite everything they have gone through, the people of Christchurch have found ways to bring life back, which for most of us will take for granted. It feels like the government has forgotten them but I think that there is still hope for Christchurch because it's not just the buildings and physical structures that make a city a city but it's the people who make a city a city and most importantly, HOME. Huge RESPECT for those living in Christchurch!

Christchurch is a garden city, a city of resilience, creativity, survival and hope. I pray that this spirit of community will continue to help them with whatever battles they have to face next. 

(Photos courtesy of my husband.. And me)

Parachute music festival

This is a long overdue post...

Each year, we always look forward to the Parachute music festival held at Mystery Creek, Hamilton. I think this must be my 7/8th festival that I've been to and over the years it has given me a lot of insights, encouragement and not to mention the fun we have over the weekend. 

This year was not only significant because it was Annabel's first one but also because it's the last Parachute Music Festival. We found out early this year that it wasn't viable for the festival to continue due to increasing costs and yet the ticket prices remained pretty much the same. We were all very sad about the news.

So looking back at this years festival, we were blessed to have Stan Walker there. He was one of my highlights as I've never seen him perform (except on NZ X Factor) but also his testimony was amazing. It really touched me on how he was abused, had a rough life with drugs, stealing and dealing with a miscarriage, he asked God to fix his brokenness, built a strong relationship with God and became who he is now.

MC Jin was another person we saw who had such humility in what he does. We saw him in the Village area with his crew and instead of them serving him, he served them but ordering and buying drinks for them. We also had a photo op with him and as I was taking the photo with him, my husband and little one, he also said "let's take another one, we can't leave out mum". Not to mention that it was raining at the time too.

So here's to Parachute Music - I pray that God will continue to use them to help influence people through music and the work that they do!