Waipapakauri Hotel

Just outside of Awanui is the Waipapakauri Hotel located on the Old North Road. In 1888 2 far north hotels applied for liquor licences but both were turned down as they were within 8km of each other.

One of the hotels belonged to Joe Evans at Waipapakauri which is listed as a category 2 historic place. Kaitaia historian Olwyn Ramsey wrote a book "Wings over Waipapakauri" which tells of how back in 1888 the closest hotel to drink was Mangonui because of beauracratic prohibition and red tape.

Article from the New Zealand Herald Volume XXV, Issue 9090, 26 June 1888

In the 1940s the hotel was the host for international guests such as Norman 'Wizard' Smith who broke the land speed record on 90 Mile Beach in 1932 and Australian pilot Charles Kingford Smith who stayed there before taking off in his plane the "Southern Cross" on the beach. 

With much public interest the hotel was serving alcohol legally by 1890 but unfortately in 1926 the building was demolished and the single storey replacement was was erected in front of the old site. It was originally known as the "Commercial Hotel" but the locals knew it as the "Waipapakauri Hotel" or the "Waipap" for short.

Over the years the hotel has continued to be the local watering hole due to the airfield that was there during the 2nd world war but was out of bounds to the local RNZAF and Army staff on duty. The dining room was converted into a hospital ward while the room next to the bar was used as a medical officer's consulting room.

It wasn't until March 1945 that the hotel went back to normal and the previous licensing resumed. 

- Information based on this article by Peter Jackson from the New Zealand Herald 23 January 2018.

Join us on Facebook at the Northland Heritage Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/1109709272401824/