On Cafe Patrol

I visited a new café in New Brighton (Christchurch) the other day. Jungle Patrol is a couple of blocks back from the beach and several blocks from the main (easily forgettable) New Brighton shopping centre. It inhabits one of those quaint, old, closed-down corner shops, brought back to life with a new generation of temptations on offer - in this case, coffee and collectible Crown Lynn, that ubiquitous New Zealand pottery that colonised just about every New Zealand kitchen cupboard through the sixties and seventies. Jungle Patrol owner, David (I forgot to ask his surname) is a collector himself and in his first month of operating the café, he’s set out a terrific Crown Lynn display on retro shelving and sideboards. There are books on Crown Lynn for the coffee drinkers to browse and he has his computer set up on the counter and if you’re interested, he’ll direct you to Crown Lynn listings on the web. With just one big central table for customers and a few chairs outside, it’s an intimate and interesting experience – especially if you’re a Crown Lynn fan. Many of the pieces are for sale too, so make sure you roll up with your collector’s fund.