Printing Trip to Christchurch

The "Boss" and I decided to go for a weekend trip down to Christchurch and visit a few letterpress printers.

We started with a visit to the Print Shop at Ferrymead Heritage Park. They have a great setup there with a massive room full of type cabinets, Heidelberg Platens, Linotypes and much more. If you are a graphic designer, typographer or lover of letterpress I highly recommend! Also, their library is full of amazing books. They even have some original study notes from the days of Letterpress Apprenticeships!

Below is the view from the Hotel. Such a sad sight :(

After Ferrymead we also went and visited Kowhai Press. Peter, the owner-operator, was very friendly and happy to show us around his at-home print studio and let us see some of his work - very talented!

We flew back to Wellington and drove back to Palmerston North. On our way home we couldn't go past The Printing Museum without popping in to say hi. Since our last visit they had made a lot of progress in the "bunker" including restoring these 2 massive type cabinets full of wood type.

We also stopped in at Cobblestones in Greytown. To my delight they had a Gem No. 3 which is the older brother to my Gem No.2. This is the first time I've seen another one other than mine, ever! It looks a lot different to mine - a lot bigger and chunkier but still very cool to see.