Rural hotel at heart of community
When a Pongaroa man wanted to save a 100-year-old window, he ended up buying a pub and becoming a pillar of a rural community.
Guy Raleigh and his wife, Paula, own the Pongaroa Hotel in rural Tararua but are selling up after 12 years to move to the Marlborough Sounds. It is one of two country taverns for sale in the district, with the Crown Hotel in Norsewood also being sold.
The pub in Norsewood, just off State Highway 2, is under contract but the Pongaroa Hotel, more off the beaten track on Route 52, is still on the market.
The Pongaroa Hotel started life in 1911 as the town’s Bank of New Zealand and the walls are decked with the history of the building and the township. The original vault is now a chiller.
Guy Raleigh, 51, has lived in the area all his life and started going to the tavern as a child for ‘‘raspberry and chippies’’ with his dad. After later selling his farm, one incident made him want to buy the place in 2009.
‘‘The previous owner was going to trade the original Bank of New Zealand window for a sliding door.
‘‘I told him, ‘you are wrong, that is a piece of history’.’’
But the owner said: ‘‘If you can do better make me an offer’’, so after discussing it with Paula he did. The other original branded windows were broken long ago.
When they took over, the carpet was threadbare and the door to the fridge was sealed with tape but things have been completely revamped.
The dining room and kitchen were extended, they moved the entrance to make it more attractive, built a smokers’ area at the rear and an outdoor area to one side of the building.
Cold beer and hearty fare are served, with food making up a third of the business.
It is now a regular haunt for locals and people stopping in.
Route 52 is frequented by cyclists, motorcyclists and workers. The pub is used by the young farmers’ club and rugby club, events like hunting weekends and the top team sporting event. There is pool-anddarts night and locals night.
‘‘The school is always the heart of the community but this is close behind it.’’
Raleigh said they were proud of what they had created.
‘‘This place is going to be around $600,000 [to buy].
‘‘You have got a house and on top of that you have got a business turning over $1 million underneath.
‘‘For anyone who wants to work hard there is a bloody good opportunity here.’’
In the three months after the Covid-19 lockdown finished last year, the hotel did double its normal trade and had a good period since the latest Covid-19 outbreak. ‘‘This winter has been good to us. We have got the whole concept of we are a hotel and it is built on respect . . . we are respected by a very supportive community.
‘‘I think the key to success for visitors and others is being something they identify with. ‘‘That is what makes us a bit different to most country hotels.’’ He said there were different reasons for a downturn in rural areas but country pubs could still be successful.
‘‘I think the thing that becomes the demise of country hotels is something that goes wrong within them. ‘‘There may be a relationship or something in the community changes, for example there might be the closing of a big factory that changes the whole dynamic of your community.
‘‘You stick to your knitting, race around and provide a good service for people.’’
He said running the hotel had been the time of their lives.
Real estate agent Craig Boyden of For Homes, who is selling both establishments, said it was not normal to be selling two rural taverns in the region at the same time.
‘‘A lot of the hotels in southern Hawke’s Bay and northern Wairarapa were not run correctly as a business. This one is.
‘‘They did not function as that meeting place and as a strong community centre, so they had a change of use. When something is not saleable in real estate you have got to change its use . . . People started buying them and started living in them.’’
But he believed there was still a place for rural pubs and their popularity was coming back.
‘‘As New Zealanders don’t travel externally, they will travel internally. If 100 cars go past here a day pre-Covid, it will be more than that after Covid.’’
He said Pongaroa was only 45 minutes from town and events were well patronised.