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.

Did you know that ducks eat acorns?

So another week has gone by, more CBD retailer meetings and some progress on finding a new location for our café. It is still a rather surreal environment that we wake up to each day, defined as the “new normal”. I can’t go the café for a coffee and an omelette. I did go through a stage last week where I went online and searched for a good home espresso machine but it was all too confusing so I’m left with strong instant or filter coffee if I can be bothered to clean the filter out and put water in it. Doesn’t sound like much to do but believe me it’s more than just rolling up at the café and sitting on the bar stool. I used to have a little competition with my staff; how long it took for them to make a coffee from the time I entered the café.

I heard this week that the place I was under-bidder on is definitely going to be taken up by the first bidder so that ruins that. When I heard that I was gutted. I went into a deep funk for 24 hours and was wondering if I had the mental fortitude to keep going. Inevitably I come back to the fact that I have invested a lot of money in the business and the brand, and I just can’t afford to throw it away. The insurers were talking about making me a lump sum offer to settle all claims and the loss adjustor said that some people were taking the money and disappearing to Australia. I must admit it is tempting, but all in all my staff are here, so are my customers, and I was born and bred here and it’s where I want to stay. Oh and two of three of my children are in town too.

I think that when I heard that our building was on the partial demolition list that was announced last Friday I slipped into mourning mode. I mean to say I have lost the place where we used to live, the bar where we used to have really good functions and the café. That is a lot to lose. Thankfully we are in a very sturdy apartment now but it’s not ours, we are really just camping there. And we have lost a lot of our personal possessions which were in the apartment. Who knows if we will ever get them back? And what exactly does partial demolition mean? So mentally I have written everything off that is still there. I can live without the possessions but it still hurts that I can’t flick through my old university photos, or use the dinner service that my mum and dad got for their wedding. It’s the same for the café. We did have a wedding reception booking for the end of February for a lovely couple that met at the café, that’s where he proposed so they wanted to have their reception there to. There were lots of stories like that. I guess, one has to let go and move on.

There are three possible opportunities I have in hand to relocate the café to; One on Moorhouse Avenue, one on Lincoln Road, and one in Sydenham. What I’m struggling with is how to decide what the best place to be for the future is. If I think about our customers, we had our regular ones in the weekend for brunch, random North American tourists in the evenings, the American Antarctic workers, coffee and dessert lovers post movies, council workers and the Westpac ladies or other such office workers. That isn’t an exhaustive list but it was an eclectic bunch. So where have all those people gone now?

The tourists have gone, or at least if they do come they will be staying in low rise outer Christchurch motels/hotels. The Antarctic lot will still appear twice a season, no movie lovers as there are no central city movie theatres open, council workers don’t have time to think let alone sneak off for an open sandwich. The other office workers have all relocated to the inner suburbs. A lot of them are there for up to six years, and will develop new habits for eating and drinking. They are talking about it being six months at least before the likes of SOL square is open again, and even when it does reopen will people want to come into town to party?

What I am most worried about is what happens after that 5-6 year period is up? Will those big professional firms move back into town, or will they stay where they are. Even if they did want to move back into town, will there be any office space suitable for them? I can’t imagine that the likes of the Forsyth Barr building will be rebuilt as is, nor the Clarendon Towers. So there will be less office space, less workers needing to eat and drink. The Civil Defence people have been doing a fantastic job. I attended a CBD retailers meeting last week with John Hamilton and they tried to explain what a huge task it was that they had in front of them. It is massive, and my walk along St Asaph Street on Friday confirmed that the face of the city has changed for ever. So many buildings destroyed, whole blocks of shops gone. The one area that they haven’t been so good as is communication, I’m hoping that they communicate better in the coming weeks.

So if I follow my logic then I need to be in the inner suburbs, but there is a huge risk attached to that decision. No one knows how the city will be redeveloped, so it is a big gamble. I gambled enough even buying the business with a decent long term lease, in the location that it was; do I have the appetite for more risk?

Speaking of appetite, I am writing this from Hanmer as I decided to get out of town for a few days to clear the head, and to escape those nasty little aftershocks. This morning I woke up and decided to go for a walk, and ended up walking up Conical Hill on an empty stomach. All I can say is that it was very nice to get to the top, my heart rate was very elevated and I needed a good few minutes at the top to rest. The heartstoppers breakfast afterwards was well earned. It’s a fantastic day up here, blue skies and quite warm and so nice to be away.

I have been walking in Christchurch too; one hour and ten minutes down to the river from Waltham, follow the river round to the library and then back up Colombo Street. It was by the river that I saw some ducks gathered around the bottom of an oak tree and they were eating the acorns! I had no idea that they ate them, just another random fact in these “new normal” times. It’s time to try the hot pools and soothe these aching muscles, and then I might have a nana nap.

Be safe,

Rob