Rob Gould, owner of The Honeypot Cafe, former accountant, born and bred in Christchurch, 20 years in the UK.A blog describing the issues around a CBD business in these "new normal" times.

 It’s been a rollercoaster of a few days. Today it’s a big high, and last week, everything I looked at in terms of the renovation of the new café seemed to multiply in cost by tens of thousands. Head in hands time it was.

Last week the issues were around fire exits, meaning we need two front doors and drainage, where at one point we thought we were going to have to dig new drains right out into the middle of Colombo Street. That was going to cost me $10,000 just from the front door into the middle of the road. Let alone the cost of getting the drains to the front door! Today I am on a high because of a very nice man from the CCC who said I didn’t need to spend all that money and I could just carry on as we are. Yeeha, what a result!

It has though, been a rewarding few days. Despite the roadblocks, it’s a bit like The Amazing Race, I have been very determined to push ahead and make things happen. I’ve been on the phone for hours calling up suppliers of security systems, fridges, till systems, refrigeration, flooring; and the list goes on. When I speak to suppliers the reception that I have had when I say we are reopening The Honeypot Café has been brilliant. Everyone knows of the café, and the fact that we are reopening, and so soon, seems to be exciting everyone.

This afternoon at the new council offices in Riccarton was a good example of how people react. I remembered the ladies on the front desk and was chatting to them and they were encouraged  to hear of our reopening, the very nice (have I said how nice he is already) Inspector of drainage man made my day and saved me $15,000, I saw Vincie who did some brilliant work post September and was very supportive of the High Street Pop Up Market Day that we ran. Then I ran into one of our old regulars, Phillipa, who thought where we were moving to was perfect, and that as she used to walk down to South City Mall then another 200 yards wouldn’t be a big issue. Big grin!

The support is so nice. It’s a good news story after all. We were down, almost out, but we are so definitely not beaten. I love that Facebook page Rise Up Christchurch. It seems to encapsulate the feeling of goodwill that is around the town, and the determination to get back to normal. I know there are so many people that are just getting by in the eastern suburbs, and I do feel sorry, or should I say, empathy for them but the best thing I can do is get my business back up and operating so that I can create jobs, so my staff can spend money and, in a small way, keep the local economy going. Oh and when we reopen I will do a special eastern burbs deal.

So as to the renovation there is still a lot of work to do, but we are on track for opening on 1^st June. We are having the final session with our designer tomorrow morning and then the builder can have a free go at it. My landlord came back from overseas during the weekend and he had a look at what we have done in 9 days and he was very impressed. He could not believe how big his own building is, without all the “stuff” in it.

Three aftershocks this morning made me think about how everything we do now is defined by earthquakes. Where were you on September 4^th, Boxing Day, and February 22^nd? It’s still a very common conversation piece, everyone has a story, everyone has an urban legend about holes opening up in the ground and then closing over, and everyone has a story about if I had been in town an hour later what would have happened to me. It’s good for those stories to be shared, maybe even elaborated on as time goes by, as its part of the healing process. We need to heal and remember, and grieve.

I have seen some tweets about the alleged “rubberneckers” along St. Asaph Street, how irritating it is to those drivers wanting to drive on through. I have no problem with people looking at the destruction of our city. It’s important that the public does this. From people that have been in the red zone the destruction is much worse than we can imagine so a tour along St. Asaph Street looking at the huge scale of the destruction can only be, in the long run therapeutic.

My son, master 17, was working on recipes for the café today, with the head chef, and afterwards I took him along St. Asaph Street. It’s not often he is quiet, maybe he even had some dust in his eyes, but he sure did have a much better feel for what has happened to our city. The block of Colombo Street from St. Asaph is the most horrific, and the most moving of what we can see because of the lost lives, the lost livelihoods, and the lost liveliness.

So obviously I have had the right amount of alcohol tonight, the words seem to have flowed well, but please forgive my grammar, spelling, and English and Kiwi idioms used.  Feedback would be good to receive, positive or negative. Tonight I have avoided all the big topics, the future of the CBD, CERA etc. etc. but they will no doubt feature in future blogs.

Stay safe,

Rob