Church Hill Restaurant Limited is a proudly New Zealand owned and operated business that offers fully hosted accommodation and dining on Stewart Island, New Zealand. We have an emphasis on fresh local produce, homemade and prepared to order.
Your hosts are Deanne and Chris Sara who re-established Church Hill Restaurant & Oyster Bar in 2012 and Church Hill Boutique Lodge & Restaurant in 2017.
"For us, it is all about our island and the experience we want our guests to take away with them."
Situated on the hill by the church we offer our guests wonderful views of the bay, the outer islands and the best of Stewart Island.
The News
Church Hill is open for the 2019-20 season
Check out images from Church Hill by clicking our Instagram link at the bottom of the page
Church Hill Lunches
We haven't opened the restaurant for lunch for many seasons but we will be opening this season on Friday, Saturday and Sundays. With the addition of Kadin to our team we will once again be able to offer visitors another lunch option. Lunch will be between 12-2pm and offer a la carte dining. The menu will be food inspired by the island and we will have a number of dishes that we rotate.
It is exciting to be able to give visitors more options during their stay and it will mean more people get to experience Church Hill dining.
Another Season Starts
We have seen another winter through and now we start the 2019-20 season of Church Hill. This October Church Hill celebrates 20 years of business on Rakiura/Stewart Island. It is a wonderful feeling knowing you have been part of a community for such a long period. Of course, we haven't been here together for the past 20 years but the restaurant has been and we have shared the past 7 seasons here together.
We have re-established the restaurant and are very proud of the product we offer the locals and visitors to the Island. We have built our lodge and are also proud of how that is going. It is an exciting time on the Island with many things happening that only enhances us as a destination.
Among the things going on is the new heritage center / museum that will highlight the past and inspire the future. That will be completed for next season but seeing the progress as the exhibits evolve over the summer will offer a teasing glance of what is to come.
We are a dark skies sanctuary which offers lovers of the night skies an opportunity to explore all that is great above all that is great beneath. This may give you that reason to visit us at the ends of the season, when it is darker earlier and longer.
We also have the first running of the "Rakiura Challenge", which sees competitors run the Rakiura track. The race starts at the beginning of Lee Bay road and finishes at the SI Community Center in the Oban township. The race had been organised by Islanders and will establish itself as a highlight at the beginning of our summer season.
Stewart Island - in events find Rakiura Challenge
For everything Stewart Island click the link above.
We look forward to meeting everyone over the coming months and making Church Hill part of your memories.
Church Hill Restaurant's Coming Season
At the start of every season we focus on getting staff to help and support us through what is always a busy time. This season we will see the return of Danny, for his third season, and Marco, who has been working with us for many seasons now. We love these guys, as do our guests, and we are very happy that they have chosen us as pat of their working lives.
We are also very pleased to be welcoming Kadin to our team. Kadin is a local lad with family and friends on the island, and he has been away learning and getting inspired to make himself a great chef. We feel he will fit into our philosophies well; with a focus on local and fresh cuisine. We are very excited with the opportunity to have him here supporting us through another season and bringing some new energy to a growing community. When he arrives we will give more details of what this year will offer dinners at Church Hill.
Things can always be made better, and as good as we feel we are, we will always look for ways to make it better.
Help Keep us Clean and Tidy
Nowadays it is not enough to be just clean and green, you need to be sustainable. It sounds like a catch phrase and in many quarters it can be simply that. For us it has always been a part our business model. We promote local products and work to minimise waste where ever possible. We take the health and wellbeing of our staff as importantly as our own. We are lucky enough to be part of something wonderful in Rakiura and as travelers ourselves we know what the rest of the world has and how we fit within that. We will do all we can to achieve what we know is the "right way" to be part of humanity, so we ask you, as a visitor to our land to support us by acknowledging the following ideas:
When you visit any place in the world it is important to remember what it was that attracted you to visit that place. For Stewart Island that is the beautiful surroundings, clean waters and abundant bird life. It is this way because we care about our Island and work to keep it this way. During the busy holiday times we as locals are out numbered by the visitors and that means our resources are stretched and our systems pushed to the limits to cope. You can help us out by simply putting all your rubbish in the bins, and if you find them full then carry it to the next bin or squash it down.
Water is always a precious resource and during the summer it does become hard to get as we rely on the rain for our supply. Think about that in the shower or when you brush your teeth or simply run a tap.
Share the roads and be aware at night it is hard to see people in dark clothing looking for kiwis.
If you are wanting to fish then be aware of the rules. There are reasons for quotas and size limits. There will be plenty for everyone if we all use it fairly.
We look forward to your visit and the support it gives our community and hopefully your visit will leave the island better off than when you came; that should be our aim wherever we visit.
All prices listed for accommodation, dining, related products, and services are in New Zealand Dollars (NZD).
When paying by secure online payment YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE CHARGED IN NZD
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Any information provided directly to Church Hill in any form is strictly private and will not be shared with external bodies without the permission of those providing said information. Should you have any concerns regarding your private information then please feel free to contact us.
