From bust to bloom
Reefton was built on coal and gold, but mining’s boom and bust nature ultimately left it vulnerable. But thanks to the energy and imagination of a few people the town of light has once again become a vibrant and exciting town abuzz with ideas and creativi
When you drive into Reefton, the town has a slow and steady pulse. It takes a while to filter past the modest houses and old mining cottages on the outskirts before you hit the heart of the town. Suddenly the pulse quickens. There’s the feeling you’ve stumbled across a movie set alive with people and purpose. For a town that’s about to turn 150 it’s ageing spectacularly well.
When Reefton Distilling Co owner Patsy Bass came off the St James Track and arrived in Reefton at New Year’s three years ago she noticed something had changed about the place.
‘‘It felt like the town had been polished. It just felt clean and bright.’’
Bass was born in Reefton. Her family left after the Inangahua earthquake because her mother didn’t want her brothers following her father into the coalmines.
But she says they missed it so much that every long weekend and school holidays they would head back there ‘‘riding horses and mucking about’’. In her 20s she came back with her daughter, buying a bach there in her 30s. In more recent of years though Bass said the town felt as though it had fallen into disrepair: ‘‘It felt like it was in a dark state.’’
So the discovery of a revitalised Reefton came as a welcome surprise.
Bass said she asked around and discovered the influence of businessman John Bougen, who had been tidying up the town. She had a coffee with Bougen, ended up doing a bit of work for him and fell in love with Reefton all over again.
That got Bass thinking about what it would be like to live back in the small West Coast town. Her husband Shane said they’d either love it or hate it, so the plan was to give it two years. ‘‘Within weeks we said this is wonderful and we can’t imagine moving back to the city. We’re firmly entrenched here now.’’
Bass said they saw the work John had been doing and if he was prepared to do it when he had no previous connection to the town, they should roll up their sleeves and contribute.
‘‘We weren’t ready to retire, although we had been working parttime for a number of years as a lifestyle choice. We wondered what we could do to create jobs for people and be part of the regeneration of Reefton.’’
Bass did not have a background in distilling and she didn’t even drink alcohol. But when opening a distillery came up they realised with the rich coal, gold and moonshine history, abundant rainfall and voracious botanicals growing on their doorstep, it made sense.
‘‘Every conversation we had kept leading back to a distillery. We prepared a business case almost to prove it wouldn’t work and the numbers stacked up.’’
They started talking to people with industry experience and ‘‘our feet haven’t touched the ground since’’.
Bass said they invested some of their own money initially but having received advice to think bigger, decided she wanted local involvement.
‘‘We wanted locals and the wider West Coast to be part of the business, so we ring-fenced a portion of the initial share offer for them. We wanted them to be proud of ‘their’ business. We have a lot of people with a connection to the West Coast who invested. Those who had left for work but still had a link to the region.’’
To celebrate the distillery’s first anniversary they held their annual meeting in Reefton, which included a weekend of activities and a roving dinner on Broadway. About 100 shareholders and their families came to town. ‘‘It hosed down. But the shareholders had the best time with some saying it’s been so much fun being part of this journey and we’re so proud to be party of the Reefton Distilling Co family.’’ They’ve now outgrown their premises and plans to put down whisky are on hold until they have more space. They’re in the final stages of due diligence for new premises in Reefton and have launched a capital raise to fund the next stage of growth.
For Bass the main appeal of Reefton is the simple life. In summer after work Patsy and Shane swim in the Inangahua River, which runs behind the town’s main street.
‘‘We never want to be a Queenstown, the magic of Reefton is that it’s this little place. We just need a more sustainable economy here that will create sufficient jobs for locals.’’
Bass says about four years ago there were 184 houses for sale, some of which had been on the market for a couple of years. In late 2019 she understands there there were only seven.
‘‘We’re beyond being a boom and bust mining accommodation town now, Reefton is a fabulous little township surrounded by huge tracts of natural wilderness and is a great tourist holiday destination. Reefton has finally been discovered.’’
For Jack Grinsted, the reason why he loves Reefton is not so straightforward.
It began when he was working for DOC in Greymouth and was given a contract to work with Inangahua Tourism Promotions to push mountainbiking and associated outdoor activities.
‘‘Luckily for me they gave me creative freedom and the tourism guys were supportive of what we got up to. We came up with a bit of brand which is the old name of Reefton, Quartzopolis. We built a website, started a mountainbike race and decked out the info centre.’’
Grinsted says he developed a passion for the place – ‘‘It got under my skin,’’ – and he had a coworker who was ‘‘a bit of a legend’’.
‘‘After a hard day in the bush he would run the Painkiller and this was at a time it was completely overgrown.’’
The Painkiller is one of the oldest mine roads in the country, commissioned in 1890 to allow access to the Painkiller and Inglewood mines.
His colleague landed on the idea to apply for funding and get the track opened up. Sadly a couple of months later he died unexpectedly and Grinsted took on the project partly as a tribute to him.
‘‘From my perspective it’s the type of track we still need. The goal is to have this track open and rideable by a reasonably skilled mountainbiker.’’
Grinsted says that mountainbiking is
‘‘I just feel so grateful I was able to come along at a time when the restoration of this beautiful heritage town had got to the point where it was a blank canvas.’’
John Bougen
‘‘cranking’’ in the area and over the past 10 years the numbers of riders have steadily increased with several even purchasing holiday homes off the back of endorsements from the likes of mountainbike scions the Kennett brothers, who said: ‘‘For a mountainbike hub, you can’t beat Reefton. It’s a cool vibe. There’s something a little more unique here.’’
Personal trainer Murray Fifield and his wife Rachel moved to Reefton from Nelson a bit over a year ago. It was something of a homecoming for Murray, whose mother had been born there and who had been raised between there and Nelson.
Reefton always felt more like home so after he returned to work in the mines during the 1990s, he formed a plan when OceanaGold were operating in Reefton. He saw the workers who were used to having gym facilities in the big centres screaming out for something like that here.
‘‘I thought then it would be a good opportunity. After Oceana closed and things dropped off they had a community gym in the picture theatre. It was good for the people who set it up but I had the feeling that I wanted to bring ... the sort of facilities that people in the bigger centres take for granted.’’
Murray leased part of the old mining school building and created Powerhouse Fitness Centre.
Murray says because of his keen interest in multisporting, Nelson was the place for him but a devastating ankle injury put a stop to that.
‘‘Me and Rachel looked at it and said why would we want to buy in Nelson when the price is so high at this time in our lives, when we can come down to Reefton and have a minuscule mortgage. It’s where I want to be. I’ve done a lot of travelling and the big cities aren’t my cup of tea any more. Lifestyle is a huge thing, especially this time of life.’’
Rachel manages the Reefton iSite and has also secured a three-year contract to help economic development in the area. She also rents studio space to make glass beads and sell designer clothing, ceramics and art for the local market.
She lost no time in making her mark. The Reefton Inc Business Association had 11 members, so Rachel got busy and now it’s up to 36.
‘‘Reefton has a real go-ahead vibe at the moment. Lots of people are moving here from away and it’s a good investment with the number of projects on the go round here.’’
She says it helps that Reefton now has Tohu Whenua status, which identifies it as the first town in the Southern Hemisphere to get public electricity in 1888.
And if plans that have been mooted to establish a scenic passenger train between Hokitika and Westport come to fruition, she says it will be a boost for the region.
Rachel says that the sole focus in Reefton has long been coal and gold but thanks to a thriving arts scene, burgeoning businesses such as Reefton Distilling Co and Larry’s Gold hemp farm and the mountainbiking and hiking, it’s well and truly been weaned off its dependency on mining.
Former Auckland businessman John Bougen says he bought the old mining school in Reefton because he was at a loose end.
He says when he saw the price he thought they’d left a zero off: the 1160 sq m building on two acres of land cost him $179,000.
Bougen says his property background told him it was an interesting place to invest.
‘‘The returns weren’t great but at every turn you could do good. Tai Poutini, the tenants of the building had said when they sold they were going to close the campus down. It was a fundamental part of Reefton: they trained all of the miners, they got their tickets there.’’
It wasn’t long before he fell in love with Reefton and the people.
Bougen said he had no intention of moving there, but during a trip to South America he was in Santiago, Chile, and a friend emailed and suggested that if he was stupid enough to buy the old school why didn’t he buy the state mines office?
He signed a contract to buy it but had to get a New Zealander to witness it, so found the New Zealand ambassador and sat down.
‘‘He said ‘Where is it?’, I said ‘Reefton’. I said, ‘It’s beautiful I’ve fallen in love with it’. He said, ‘It’s a dump’. I said, ‘You can’t say that’, and he said, ‘Yes I can. I was born there’. I took that as an omen that I was doing the right thing. I bought it and shifted my life to Reefton.’’
So began a string of property purchases in the town and a campaign to restore some of Reefton’s heritage. The town turns 150 next year.
Bougen says it’s invigorating to be part of the transformation and marked his five-year anniversary last month.
To say he’s heavily involved is putting it lightly. He was elected to council last year and is now the chairman of the Inangahua Community Board, treasurer of the Reefton Visitor Centre, treasurer/secretary of the Reefton School of Mines, treasurer of the Reefton Workingmen’s Club, committee member of the Reefton Trotting Club, interim president of the Sportspark Society and interim president of the Reefton RSA, pending reinstatement.
‘‘From my point of view I just feel so grateful I was able to come along at a time when the restoration of this beautiful heritage town had got to the point where it was a blank canvas. The groundwork had been done. There were a heap of buildings that hadn’t been pulled down or altered incorrectly, so they could be restored to what was always there.’’
The latest QV has put residential property up between 20 and 25 per cent and Bougen says that’s down to demand.
‘‘There’s barely a house for sale in Reefton and most of the sales happen before it goes to market. There’s not a shop for lease in the main street.’’
He says the arrival of new people is helping to contribute to the economy.
‘‘You put a little bit of paper in with the petrol and you get a blazing inferno of activity. The hardware store is flat out, the electrician has never had a year like it in the 20-odd years he’s been here. The plumber can’t keep up. There wouldn’t have been a builder working here five years ago. It’s good to be part of it. It’s like they say, all ships come up on a rising tide. Everyone is buying into it, it’s marvellous.’’