Kiwi cuisine from caravan at Castlepoint

SHE-BREWS: Coffee caravan owner Sara-Jane Ellmers (left) serves Castlepoint Beach customers Simon Rees and Mila Te Whare-Manson, 11. PHOTO/DIANNE MANSON

A long-time resident of the Castlepoint district is rolling out a menu of good old Kiwi drinks, dishes and delicacies aboard a coffee caravan at the Wairarapa beach resort.

Sara-Jane Ellmers, who lives with her partner Craig and son Fynn at Sugarloaf Cottage about 4km from the beach, said the closure of the Castlepoint Store earlier this year had left beach residents with no place to go for ready refreshments, snacks or meals.

Castlepoint Store owners Devon and Anne Oakly had put the premises on the market five years ago and had reluctantly closed their doors after a sustained lack of buyer interest.

"I was working at the pub (Whakataki Hotel) at first and was just helping out at the shop on the odd day before I started working there full-time, on and off, for a few years," Mrs Ellmers said.

"But when the store closed I thought 'bummer for the locals' - they had nowhere to go for a coffee and a pie. I was kind of idle, so I decided to get the caravan."

Mrs Ellmers bought the retro caravan to help out her neighbours and visitors and to cast a line for business as well, she said. She launched about a month ago, parking under a stand of trees close to the beachfront.

"It's a perfect time to get the feel of things and get going. I've done every element so far - southerly storm, northwesterly winds, everything. It can get pretty cold in the winter there but the summer will be the busy time. I'll be the one in a straitjacket, so best to get in the swing of things now I thought."

Her tucker trailer has a late model coffee machine, a pie warmer, and a Tip Top freezer, with the pies coming from Solway Pies in Masterton and a range of fillings on offer from mince, to steak and cheese or chicken and asparagus.

She has stocked the caravan with a range of other decidedly Kiwi fare, she said, besides the hearty pies, including L&P, coffee, ice blocks and Trumpet ice creams, and dollar bags of mixed lollies that boast jet planes, pineapple lumps and fruit bursts.

The menu was topped off with baking Mrs Ellmers lovingly prepares at home for her beachfront customers, she said, and "every coffee gets a chocolate fish" to boot.

The caravan hails from Taupo and Mrs Ellmers is on the cusp of rebranding the mobile servery from Lady of the Lake to She-Brews, she said.

"The surfies love it. They don't have to take their wetsuits off and they can get a pie and coffee between sets and head off again.

"It'll keep me busy, I enjoy people, and I love baking, so that's me."