Almost forgot my totally edible Egg Trays! So cute for $12.00

The hens have been busy at Bull Rush lately!

More Easter Goodies - No Foil Nasties here!

We are doing some crazy flavours like Milk Sherbert Eggs, Rocky Road Eggs and Hokey Pokey all with their own surprises inside! Join the revolution!

Easter Eggs Baby and I'm not talking those hideous sprayed ones that have no Cacao in them whatsoever!

I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love...forget men girls - all you really want are these Easter Eggs with old fashioned yummy marshmallow, a one centimetre layer of thick gooey caramel like your grandmother used to make and of course our fabulous 49.5 % dark chocolate on the outside.

They are flying out the door!

PS - I should explain, or rather nark on those naughty companies with less than kosher Easter Eggs for sale. Did you know many of them use a chocolate flavoured spray on the outside that contains no cacao at all?

You know what my Mummy always says though - CHEATS NEVER PROSPER!

Better get on with making them!

Why people think I'm crazy - it's all Will's fault!

This is what greets you in our shop at the moment!

I always thought Bull Rush Chocolate was fit for Royalty...Tee Hee.

Time for a fun week me thinks!

Charlie's getting married at last! William's wedding march!

Do you remember that tune? It was drilled into us when we were five - how ironic it seems now:
Charlie's getting married at last
To a pretty girl without a past
Her Majesty's so happy
The Duke's a happy chappy
Cos Charlie's getting married at last!
My Mummy let me sit up late to see them getting married. We had a little black and white television and I got to sit in her bed through-out the night. It was magic!
And now my seven year old gets to relive it all again with William and Catherine. I hate to say it but she's got a scapbook going just like we all did - Republicanisim is just not a terminology that she understands - pretty Princesses on the other hand....
However, I would have been the first to cheer for the end of the Monarchy on a Commonwealth scale, yet it does seem to reinvent itself and in William's case we have found just cause to have the Queen on board. William represented the monarchy well in New Zealand. We are a long way from other countries and suffer accordingly as if an only child when a tragedy subjects us to such a state. His being here was wonderful, if only to keep us from falling against each other in despair. His sympathy was genuine, his smile rewarding and I can say that since then we have had many people in the shop buying Royal Wedding Souvenirs.
At the end of the day we can all pretend we are a bit braver than them and we don't need their help - but when they come there is very few of us who don't quietly say 'Thanks and good luck'.
Besides - where would the world's news media be without a few royal scandals!
PS - I'm going completely nutty - what with the life size pictures of William and Kate in the shop that you are welcome to take your picture with, there is also the China souvenirs and of course my own special commemorative box of Royal Wedding Chocolates dating back to every wedding since Queen Victoria - all imprinted on one of our marvelous chocolates!
And don't forget our Royal Wedding High Tea for everybody on the day of the Wedding - come down and enjoy a scone with jam and cream and our famous hot chocolate!

Bull Rush Chocolate on a new beginning...

So it's been a difficult journey so far. The birth of Bull Rush Chocolate would not have been quite the spectacle it was if it hadn't!
I, Nadine Porter, am proud to call myself owner of this amazing business though, despite the lost sleep, the nightmares about chocolate stairs that lead up to a business hell (I'm not kidding) and sometimes a lack of confidence!
But - in the past three months I have learnt something about myself and about business and that is that it is not who you are, not what you sell that marks us out from each other, but rather how we react to the situations we face.
On February 22nd Christchurch suffered the largest natural history disaster New Zealand has ever faced. We too, being 45 minutes down the road, felt the quake - I have never seen our old shop bend so much.
It changed much among us - it changed many among us. For the past month I have been privy too the most blessed stories of survival and of just sheer courage. These are not people who were buried in rubble but people who have the task of carrying on.
I am not one of them, but I feel that we, collectively are the shoulders they need to rest upon.
As such Bull Rush has found it's own identity. We are not just a chocolate shop. We care about every single chocolate we make. I think about how and when these chocolates will be eaten.
We don't have fancy machinery - we don't have a lot of staff nor a lot of cashflow, come to that, - but what we do have is empathy, and an entirely new direction that embraces our community and lives with it, rather than outside it.
I am proud to be a handmade chocolate shop that concentrates on you, the person sitting in front of the telly wondering if the world will ever come right.
Enough of the soppy stuff...it's time for business.
Aroha to all of you out there. I look forward to meeting you all!