Sign of the Kiwi café back in business

Janice Thornton gets emotional when she thinks about how close she came to losing her business to the Port Hills fire.

Business partners Janice Thornton and Eric Devos are elated they can re-open their Sign of the Kiwi cafe.

Only three weeks before the fire broke out she and business partner Eric Devos had celebrated the re-opening of their Sign of the Kiwi café after a six year closure due to earthquake damage.

Business was booming. People were loving having the hill-top café back in business and the pair were revelling in having queues from the front door of their café to the counter every day, all day.

But as flames roared across the Port Hills on the night of Monday February 13 Ms Thornton feared that once again she was going to lose the business she has poured so much energy and passion into.

“We feared this place would be gone – it was just awful,’’ Ms Thornton said.

The fire came within 100 metres of the Sign of the Kiwi but a huge effort by firefighting crews saw the historic building saved from the flames and on Thursday Ms Thornton and Mr Devos will open their doors to paying customers for the first time in more than three weeks.

“Lots of effort went into saving the Sign of the Kiwi and we are really grateful. We just can’t wait to get back in and get started again – it is something we’re both very passionate about,’’ Ms Thornton said.

The pair have received wonderful messages of support from the public since the fire and they expected to be very busy when they re-opened as people curious to see the damage caused by fire ventured up the hill and the walking tracks re-opened.

They have managed to keep their staff on throughout the forced closure of the café and all were keen to return to work, Mr Devos said.

“It’s going to be fantastic to be open again and serving people good food and good coffee. We can’t wait.''