Fresh paint at colourful villa backpackers lodge

For 23 years the Burn family has created memories at their accommodation business, the Villa Backpackers Lodge.

The 1903 villa has been painted a few different colours in that time, as evidenced by the photos displayed inside. At the moment it stands out in a bright blue.

Rob Burn put the property on the market late last year as he was nearing retirement age and wanted to ease his responsibilities. But with the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, he realised selling up might not be easy.

Instead, Burn decided to focus on doing up the property.

‘‘We’re painting the colour inside and lightening it up. And doing some maintenance on the roof,’’ hesaid.

‘‘My problem is that I’ve got a lot of other things to do that take up a lot of my time. So I’m keen to get out of this, but I do love it.’’

Two of Burn’s children were raised at the lodge.

He said he used to spend a lot of time mixing with the guests, but over time his attention had turned to other things, including his children.

‘‘There’s a lot of memories here. There was a war going on in the Solomon Islands and my brother-in-law was the site manager for Fletchers,’’ Burn said.

‘‘So him and his partner came back and stayed with us for a few months, and we built this tree house together. Then he went back and built the central bank of the Solomons. And two days before it was being handed over, one of his staff murdered him.’’

The tree house in memory of Kevin O’brien still stands.

The family had frequently hosted youth groups and school camps as well as solo tourists.

‘‘We might not have a monopoly on great scenery – everywhere in New Zealand is great.

But we can do it a good service to set ourselves apart,’’ Burn said.

Eight guests remain in isolation at the lodge, which usually catered for up to 65 guests a night.

‘‘We cater for all sorts. Our bread and butter was international tourists – that’s about 90 per cent of our market.

‘‘We had quite a few people here when we went into lockdown, but a lot have left because there were flights home to Germany and places like that,’’ Burn said.

One of the guests still at the lodge, Gerard Graham, had finished writing a book, My Journey to Kulan Mountain, during his stay at the backpackers. The book was published in February.

‘‘Everyone has a story. Being here, you get to learn so many of those stories and I’m really proud of that,’’ Burn said.