WRITTEN ON September 13th, 2009 BY kiwivera AND STORED IN kiwiland, travelling

Tags: cafe, coffee, lyttelton, new zealand, reviews, south island, travel

One of the highlights of my recent short trip to New Zealand’s South Island was the discovery of the Lyttelton Coffee Company, a neat café in the small harbour town of Lyttelton.

The drive to Lyttelton was not planned. Ninety-nine per cent of the time we just decide on a direction and drive for as long as we can, stopping whenever we want. That was, once again, the case. The stop in Lyttelton, from Christchurch, happened mid-afternoon, right in time for a warm cup of coffee. And boy, what coffee! I was not prepared for it.

The only thing I knew about Lyttelton was that Joe Bennett - a writer whose travel tales I really enjoy reading - lives (or used to live) there. That was it. So the whole town was a very pleasant surprise. I can see why one would live in Lyttelton. It’s close enough to Christchurch that you can go there whenever you feel the need to visit a big(ger) city and yet it’s far enough that you can forget it exists if you want to. It’s actually only about 10 or 12km away from Christchurch but the mountains in between help transmit that feeling of isolation, I guess.

It turns out that there’s quite a bit more to know about this little town. As I got to know after my visit, the first telegraph transmission in New Zealand was made from the Lyttelton Post Office in 1862. The town was also the set for most of the exterior scenes of Peter Jackson’s the Frighteners. So there you go.

Anyway, the coffee company. The place was super busy - for a small town on a week day - but it still had a cozy feeling to it. I had my coffee to the sound of John Lennon vinyl records that a DJ near the entrance was putting on and marvelling at the decoration of the place, with the awesome antique typewriters hanging on the walls and the fireplace in the corner.

The place is very kid-friendly and if usually that is a reason to make me go “ugh, no thanks”, there were no annoying noises, just a whole general atmosphere of warmth and friendliness. And, as a bonus, it turns out that the building has a real history too!

It’s probably a good thing that I don’t live anywhere near Lyttelton. Daily trips to this café would just be a budget killer!