New Kawhia hotel taking shape
A new hotel being built on Kawhia’s main street is the biggest building to be constructed in the town for 100 years.
Designed to incorporate styling trends reminiscent of 19th century architecture, the top of the steel-framed building has three triangular windows representing the Tainui canoe, and the two local marae, said Tom Moke, project manager and deputy chairman of developers the Taharoa C Incorporation.
‘‘They represent peoples coming together. Kawhia was a bustling town 20 years before the Treaty of Waitangi,’’ Moke said.
The aim had been to have the hotel completed by Labour Weekend 2021, however, while the building part of the project was on schedule, the fit-out had been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic by slowing the availability of materials and tradespeople.
When complete the hotel will sport 11 ‘‘spacious’’ bedrooms and a full bar and restaurant facility capable of catering to groups of up to 200 people.
‘‘Our target market is the domestic visitor, day-trippers, people spending weekends,’’ Moke said.
‘‘We have the hot water (the ocean-side Te Puia Springs). Fishing is big – there are six or seven charter boats in the harbour – and we’ve got two ocean-going waka moored in the harbour.
‘‘We had one at the Maritime Museum in Auckland, but we made the decision to have them both in Kawhia. We have groups over sometimes, school groups we take for trips around the harbour.’’
The Taharoa C Incorporation has derived its income from the mining and export of iron sands from a site south of Kawhia since the early 1970s and invested in the development of boutique hotels: four in New Zealand, one in Rarotonga, one in Fiji and in California, Moke said.
‘‘We are experienced hotel operators. At the moment we have sold the operations in Fiji and the USA and kept the ones in New Zealand and Rarotonga. We operate the Waitomo Caves Hotel and a boutique hotel on Lake Taupo but Covid has hit us quite hard and slowed further expansion.
‘‘Kawhia is what it is. The road is a bit of a challenge but the volume of domestic visitors has been increasing in recent years and that’s our target market.’’ Hotels operated by Taharoa Tourism Ltd employed a number of chefs and the aim would be to provide high-quality food in the Kawhia hotel, Moke said.