Want to buy a town?
Why settle for a house in Auckland that you’ll spend the rest of your life paying off when you can buy almost the entire town centre of Mo¯ kau?
For the same price as an outer Auckland six bedroom home you could buy a third of Mo¯ kau’s main businesses – The Whitebait Inn and the Mo¯ kau Butcher.
It may not seem like many, but when there’s only a few more businesses than that on the main stretch and just 75 permanent residents, it’s a good chunk of the town.
There are baches for sale too. Famous for whitebait, although locals say there’s not much of it at the moment,
Mo¯ kau, an hour north of New Plymouth, is a beach town with a laidback lifestyle, where truckies in Stubbies, socks and jandals stop to get a whitebait fritter to break up the drive.
It’s a welcoming community filled with good old-fashioned rural hospitality.
They’ll pop the jug on while you wait and vote you chairman of the museum only a month after moving there.
That’s what happened to 65-year-old Mark Barclay, who arrived in January.
‘‘Mo¯ kau is one of New Zealand’s best kept secrets,’’ he says. ‘‘I don’t miss Auckland at all.’’
He believes once the Mt Messenger Bypass goes in, Mo¯ kau will take off.
‘‘There’s so much potential here.’’
When Margaret Whittaker opens the door, which still has the keys in the outside, she’s been pre-warned that people from the paper are in town.
‘‘You’re in Mo¯ kau,’’ she laughed.
Margaret has lived in Mo¯ kau for 58 years with husband Ian.
They live in the town vicarage, and are used to people driving up the hill behind all day because it’s one of the few places where you can get phone reception.
Mo¯ kau is a major stop for people stocking up on snacks for the drive or hopping out to stretch their legs and get an ice cream.
Margaret feared the bypass would affect that.
‘‘It will shorten your distance from New Plymouth and you’re not ready for a cup of tea after 45 minutes.’’
Ian thought the town needed new people as it had been stagnant.
‘‘There’s a big change coming in the town but we need it,’’ the 84-year-old said.
Change is certainly in the air at the Mo¯ kau Butchery, where owners Graham and Gloria Putt want someone to take the business off their hands so they can spend more time with the grandkids.
They are nearing 70 and have owned the shop for 29 years.
The business and house behind it are going for $450,000 but the Putts were more than happy to negotiate.
Gloria had heard the banks weren’t keen to lend to country businesses and the thought of not selling worried her.
‘‘We’re going to end up one of those ghost towns if we’re not careful.’’
It is a lucrative opportunity having turned a profit of $200,000 last year.
‘‘You have a three-way income here with meat, homekill, and whitebait and what a place to live,’’ Graham said.
‘‘But young people don’t seem to want to take the risk or have the confidence.
‘‘I’d like to sell to a butcher for the community. The farmers need us and would be lost without us,’’ he said.
The butchery’s big sellers are sausages, bacon, and usually whitebait, although there was none for sale on the day we arrived – which was deeply disappointing for a couple of tourists who had driven around almost the entire bottom half of the North Island in hunt of the wee white fish.
Graham and Gloria pointed the couple in the direction of the Whitebait Inn just down the road where there was plenty available.
In whitebait season, the inn’s owners Clare and Dave Harding said they make around 100 fritters a day, selling at $18.50 a pop.
They moved to Mo¯ kau from Te Kowhai for a lifestyle change five years ago.
‘‘We were looking at buying a little camp ground, but it came with the shop as well,’’ Clare said.
The shop, which sits in front of the camp ground, acts as a cafe, grocery store, and post office.
Two times a week a rural courier drives a four hour return journey into the hills to give farmers their mail and a top up of milk, eggs, and bread.
But now the couple are again looking for a change, and the The Whitebait Inn could be all yours for $950,000
‘‘You have to be prepared to work and that can be a bit of a stumbling block but it’s certainly a very good financial business,’’ Clare said.
And you’ve got to know your way around a whitebait fritter.
‘‘The key is plenty of whitebait because people will tell you if there’s not,’’ Clare laughed.