OLD HOTELS AND IDENTITIES

Taupo Times, Volume II, Issue 53, 21 January 1953, Page 6

OLD HOTELS AND IDENTITIES

THE TERRACES

(By

H.H.)

And now let us get on to a new ■site that cf ihe Terraces, the first Eotei oi the Taupo-Napier Road and so well known to Taupo-ites and parti ulariy those from Hnv/Kes Bay and its earlier families. I have ari klea that the Opepe Hotel of aneient days and some nine miles onwards more or less outbid ihe popularity of tthe Terraces Hotel but in the T may be subject to correction. I have not been there since the recepfion by the Town Board to the erew •and officers of the H.M.N.Z.S. Taupo on its first visit to Taupo under the oommand of Commander Bourke, IXS.C. on April 5th., 1949. The Hotel has had many interesting chang*es of hosts during its many years but I tam of the belief that the most interesting and delightful of them all was the late Johannie Sheehan as he was affeetionately known. I would go so far as to ■Bay .110 one was known better from Taupo to London than Johannie SheeImn with his quaint stutter a parfcicuiar trait of his and he used to say to me "H — H — How — my s — s — — sfcnfctetf is worth h — h — h— jjmndreds of p — p—p — pounds to me" and Ihe was perfectly right. Mr Sheehan was a delightful host and tnan. Then there was another re*ipected licensee in the person of Mr Glass the father of Mr Efnest Glass of Taupo. He also kept an excellent hotel. The first proprietors of the Hotel 1 understand were Messrs Ross and McKinley two strange characters who never spoke to eaeh other thougih they were partners.

The Rev. Mr Fletcher, an exceilent padre of early Taupo days, used to call at the hotel for tne Easter Oiferings and though there were as many as sixty or seventy present, only the stafi: and the proprietor usu^ ally attended the service. I recall some sixty pounds being collected from the visitors walking around the hotel and popping in and out of the bar. Mr R. C. Lowry, one of the then proprietors, used to attend the service, sing a hymn and then rush out into the bar to serve a thirsty individual with a whisky or two and fthen rush back to the service and s© pick up on verse three. Yes, these were delightful days, never to return I fear. And then there was the gentleman from Gisborne who used to make an annual visit to the Terraces. He had a wooden leg, and with this he used to "clean up" the bar of bottles and glasses and then next morning pay his cheque for the night's damage and with pleasure. And then there was the time when, in company with the son of the late Canon Tuke, we started on cycles .for Napier from the Terraces on a wet morning at 8.30 land reached Napier at 2 a.ni. the following day — that was a famous ride. I fear facts are scarce so far as this hotel is concerned. Although I have tried Napier, Tauranga, Rotonir and Taihape for data I have not been able to glean what I was after. Thus ihe description of the hotel will be a little incomplete. However I have added a few reminiscenees that may recall the happy days of the Terraces, which to me has been very dear in more vrays than one. There came a time when I wished to become an anthropoiogist. 1 tbought I ought to be interested in old graves and on walking around ihe Terrace grounds across the Lakelet in the valley I came across what •1 consldered a perfect grave, fenced Back to the Hotel I went for i>lek and shovel and for two days in ecmpany with the dear and delightful childrents doctor, Doctor Ronald cof: Napier j 1 iug and du-g and after each shovel-full ( knelt down and smelt and sniffed for results. However at the elose of the sec•ond day I began to waver and then has.tenod to the Hotel to enquire of the then proprietor — Mr Glass I bolieve — -about the fenced grave . . . wOh," said he, "that was a ' smau

cherry tree I grew some years ago and plaeed a fence around it for safety from horses." I thereupon diseontinued my anthropological studies at the Terraces Hotel. The Hotel I understand was erected sometime in the yeah 188.5 or thereabouts though I am not quite sure. Dr T. C. Moore, late of Taupo, who used to make Taupo his Mecca in the early days, arrived here in 1885 when the Hotel it is said, was then being built. The first licensees were Ross & McKindley. I was a twostoried building with ba.lconies on eacli side. and then contained twenty rooms of which 16 were bedrooms. There were two sitting rooms and a large dining room to seat 40 guests. There was aiso an eigihtstalled stable with buggy and coach house. There are some curious black Terraces (from which the Hotel received its name) impregnated with iron and iodine and the analysis of the water show some 15 different minerals. There was also a cold soda spring half a mile up the valley but of recent years hearing nothing of it I imagine that it may now have ceased to flow. We used to travel daily the Terraces Hotel but in this to this spring for cups of soda water.