New Plymouth’s Shining Peak have opened a branch office in Christchurch — setting up a bar and restaurant in the refurbished Sumner Post Office.

Shining Peak have been looking for a new venue for some time and briefly looked at opening a venue in Queenstown, but they didn’t actively seek out Sumner, the popular Christchurch beachside suburb.

“In essence Sumner picked us,” says Shining Peak co-owner Jesse Sigurdsson. “The developers of the site got in touch with us and asked if we’d be interested in coming and having a look.

It was as simple as that really. We came down, had a look and got a good feel for the region. We fell in love with the building, fell in love with Sumner.”

Sigurdsson says the ongoing post-earthquake revitalisation of Christchurch also makes it a vibrant spot.

“I find Christchurch has just got so much life to it, whereas some of the other big centres are lacking a bit of that at the moment. I just feel like there’s always something going on in Christchurch and it’s a good scene for beer and food and hospitality as well.

“So, it felt like it was the right fit and Sumner just felt like it could really use something similar to what we do here in New Plymouth — great beer but also great food, great service and a really nice environment.”

Shining Peak
The booths at Sumner Post Office

Shining Peak had been looking at alternative venues since 2020.

“We started to look into Queenstown at one point and that was probably the industry’s worst-kept secret at that time. But that just ended up not being right for us. Since then we’ve just been looking and constantly talking about it.

“We looked at plenty of options and nothing was right so we thought, ‘we don’t need to force it, we’ll just wait until something comes along’. And this does feel right.”

Sigurdsson admits the new venue will put more pressure on the brewery in New Plymouth which is already stretched past capacity.

“Production is going to be our next problem — making sure we can keep up while also keeping up with our wholesalers as well.”

They currently get some beer brewed under contract at Steam in Auckland and have looked at adding capacity to their Gill Street brewery.

“We’d love to be able to chuck some more tanks in the back here but being an inner-city brewpub, it’s not as simple as that.
So, we either start getting really creative or we start looking at another site but the easy solution at the moment is obviously how much we get contract brewed.”

Two Thumb open in neighbouring Redcliffs

No sooner had Shining Peak opened in Sumner than Christchurch locals Two Thumb announced a new venue — their fifth — in neighbouring Redcliffs.

They have four Christchurch venues: the original Manchester Street site, Colombo Street, Diamond Harbour and now Redcliffs, as well as a Nelson venue.

Sigurdsson thinks the addition is a positive, rather than a competitive worry.

“Anything like that only helps build the area. And I think we complement each other with slightly different offerings at both ends. And perhaps people start bar hopping between the two of them. So if we complement each other like that, I see a lot of value.”