The Waterhole Café is the café arm of Safari Meats, a South African butchery and grocery business on Carmen Road in Christchurch. Sharing its home with the butchery and its shelves of South African groceries in Hornby/Hei Hei, the café offers a relaxed sit-down option with table bookings taken online, plus delivery through Uber Eats and DoorDash.
The butchery counter is known for thick boerewors, fresh pork rashers, cabanossi and South African dried meats, alongside meat hampers and weekly meat boxes; bulk hindquarter and whole lamb orders can be arranged through order forms on the website. The shop stocks everything from Ouma condensed milk rusks and Robertson seasonings to braai supplies, sweets, sauces and home baked goods, and a Christmas order form appears each festive season.
Hours run Monday to Friday from 8am to 3pm and Saturday from 8am to 2pm, closed Sundays. The team can be reached on 03 925 8993 or at [email protected].
Tucked onto Carmen Road in Christchurch's Hei Hei/Hornby industrial belt, The Waterhole Café is the café face of Safari Meats, a South African butchery and grocery business that has become a touchstone for South African expats around Canterbury — and well worth crossing town for everyone else. Part café, part butchery counter, part grocery aisle, it is the sort of place where you can settle in for an easy visit and walk out with boerewors for the weekend braai.
The Waterhole sits at 96b Carmen Road, sharing its home with Safari Meats, and the two tell a single story. The butchery side covers fresh meat and South African dried meats, with bulk orders available for bigger appetites — hindquarters and whole lambs can be arranged through order forms on the website. The shop shelves carry groceries sourced from South Africa: spices and sauces, biscuits and sweets, braai essentials, spreads, porridge and rice, cold drinks and home baked goods. "Stock up on your favourites" is the shop's own promise, and the shelves back it up.
For larger occasions there are meat hampers, with hamper packs and weekly meat boxes refreshed to suit everything from a family dinner to a full table of guests. The online store dispatches orders Monday to Wednesday across New Zealand, so this quiet corner of Hornby ships South African flavour nationwide.
A few names come up again and again. Boerewors — the thick, coiled South African sausage — is the heart of any proper SA butchery, and Safari Meats' thick boerewors sells by the kilo alongside fresh pork rashers. From the dried meats range comes cabanossi, the firm dry sausage that never lasts long, while the wider dried meats cabinet is worth a browse on its own. On the grocery shelves, Ouma condensed milk rusks are the classic dunking companion, and Robertson's salt and vinegar seasoning and Steers seasoning salt bring familiar braai flavour to the home grill.
None of it is fussy, and that is rather the point: these are the everyday staples of a South African pantry, stocked properly by people who know exactly what each one is for.
The café side keeps things easy. Doors open Monday to Friday from 8am to 3pm, with a shorter Saturday sitting from 8am to 2pm; Sundays are quiet. Planning a catch-up or a group visit? A table can be booked through the form on the website — you note your party size, preferred date and time, and any special requests, and the team takes it from there.
Can't make it to Carmen Road? The Waterhole is listed on Uber Eats and DoorDash, so its food reaches a good slice of Christchurch without anyone leaving the house.
Come December, the café runs a dedicated Christmas order form — worth watching for if South African festive favourites feature in your holiday plans. Between the hampers, the butchery and the grocery shelves, it doubles as a one-stop shop for a proper South African Christmas a long way from home.
You will find The Waterhole Café at 96b Carmen Road, Hornby, Christchurch. Questions and bookings can go through 03 925 8993 or [email protected]. Saturdays wrap up at 2pm and Sundays are closed, so a weekday morning is the safest bet for an unhurried visit.
Pair your café stop with a lap of the shelves: rusks and seasonings for the pantry, dried meats and cabanossi for the road, and a coil or two of boerewors for the braai. It is a short trip across Christchurch that tastes a very long way from Canterbury — in the best possible way.