Grand old “Belvedere House”

Thunder and lightning shook our caravan last night – we could swear that the thunderclaps were positioned right overhead.  As we huddled under the bedclothes, the thunder rumbled angrily in the clouds, before departing to let us sleep in peace.  The storm cleared the wet weather away, and we woke to a fine, sunny Wairarapa morning, after several days of wind and rain.

We needed a walk, we decided, to get those kinks out of our backs, and to partake in a little much needed exercise after all that sitting around the camp site.  On the way to town we passed one of Carterton’s early pubs, which had fallen on hard times.  A group of people were hard at work with paintbrushes. 

  It’s a big job, painting an old pub

Built in 1890, and originally known as the White Hart Hotel, the Club Hotel served locals and travelling public alike, and contained a ground floor a commercial room, several sitting rooms, office, and a large dining room. The first floor housed a sitting room, the bedrooms, and a bathroom. It was reported that “a good table is kept, and the bar is stocked with the best brands of liquors”.   Stables and yards were available in the grounds, and a horse and carriage provided patrons with a shuttle service from the nearby railway station.  The hotel was closed in 2005 after 125 years of use, and was badly damaged by fire in January 2009.

Sue and Peter had bought this building a couple of years ago, and it is their retirement project, she told us.  Sue kindly stopped her painting and took us inside to show us the bare bones of the building, and what progress they had made. It suffered a fire prior to their purchase, and we could see some of the charred boards inside.  The family are slowly working away to restore the building, learning how to re-sash windows, adding insulation, and doing the 101 jobs necessary to bring the building up to scratch.   No, it won’t be starting up again as a pub, we were told.   The  family quarters are already finished upstairs, and future plans include making bedrooms available upstairs for residents, and leasing the downstairs areas to tenants.   This grand old building will be renamed “Belvedere House”.  We wish Sue and Peter well in their enterprise to bring this grand old building back to life again.