Well-known graffiti-clad former store in Pongakawa to go

Andrew Bentley outside the soon to be demolished former Pongakawa Store.

As landmarks go, it’s not quite up there with the Sky Tower or the Beehive.

But the former Pongakawa Service Station on the corner of Pongakawa Station Rd and SH2, east of Te Puke, will be familiar to, if not millions, then hundreds of thousands.

Its graffiti-clad exterior has given it cult status, and it has been used as a backdrop for many a photo. But anyone wanting to include it in their snaps needs to get a wriggle on.

It has been 21 years since the business closed. It is still owned by the Bentley family who ran the business from 1981 to 2003, but is due to change hands this week.

“In 1981 Mum and Dad bought the shop and took a lease on the land,” says Andrew Bentley.

They bought the property outright a few years later.

Mum and Dad are Jean and the late Les Bentley.

When they took it over, from Hank Lynch, it was also a service station, selling Mobil fuel, but the tanks were removed in the mid-1990s.

The whole operation was closed 21 years ago.

It was simply not worth staying open.

Les and Jean’s age, the condition of the building that required extensive investment to bring back up to modern standards, and the dwindling numbers of customers were all factors.

“We shut the doors - all the stock stayed in there except food and slowly over the years we’ve just put other stuff in there as storage,” says Andrew.

Pongakawa Service Station - mid-1980s.

There was no serious attempt to sell it as a going concern.

Jean says running the business “had its moments like everything else.”

“There were good times and there were sad times,” she says.

The shop sold “whatever people wanted”, says Andrew, and was a hub for the community.

“My late husband has a little workshop there where he would help people with their cars. Many cars in those days would need a tinkering, he was very good at that.

“Then there were a lot of people come in and tell us about the history and who had [previously owned the business] and what happened to them.”

Popular with school children, the store supplied lunches to Pongakawa School.

“All the school kids would come in and see Mum,” says Andrew.

“I was granny to come of them,” says Jean.

But there was a darker side and more than once the store was robbed.

“I did have one chappie come in one afternoon. There was not a soul within sight. He came in quite boldly, he said ‘I’ve come to rob you’.

“I said ‘have you? You’re too late, Les has already gone to the bank’.”

Despite the road being much busier today, before the tanks were removed, the service station was one of three selling petrol in the immediate district.

“Cars didn’t have big fuel tanks and didn’t have good economy so there were three service stations out here. Then the tanks came out because they were over 50 years old. It was at a time when it wasn’t economical and oil companies were shutting down service stations, not growing them,” says Andrew.

The same view today.

The economy of the area also changed.

“You saw the district changing from being mainly dairy to what it is today,” says Jean.

The many dairy farms in the area made “gypsy day” - June 1, when sharemilkers and mobs of cows would move between farms - interesting.

“There were some lively times when herds came through from Gisborne on foot - that was always very interesting.”

Those moving on would often come into the shop to say goodbye.

“They’d be teary and were sorry they were going, but then we had the new lot come in and we’d listen to their tales while they settled in.”

For some, says Jean, it was a good idea to make sure they had settled their accounts before they left the area.

The store was open seven days a week, but sometimes that wasn’t enough for customers.

“We had occasions in the night when people would bang on the door at the house and would want petrol and it wasn’t an easy job to get up and go out in the pitch black dark and open things up.

“You’d get all these hard-luck stories and they would give you a cheque and you would wonder if it was going to bounce.

It was only in the last few years the store was open that the Eftpos system was in place.

“It was so much better, much easier - you didn’t have to worry.”

Recognised as much for its graffiti as its history these days, Andrew says there was never a serious attempt to clean it up.

“I think I only tried once and, you know, it’s a waste of time. You can worry about it or just give up - you’re not going to stop it.”

“It’s a great place to have photographs and quite a lot of wedding parties have stopped off and had a memento with the bride and everybody,” says Jean.

“And tourists as well - it’s been well-documented. It’s a bit of an eyesore, but you get used to it.”

Andrew says over the years a lot of people have asked about buying the land and buildings, but until now the time hasn’t been right.

“Part of it is my age I suppose,” he says. “When you look at it, mowing the grass and looking after everything, if I don’t hurry up and enjoy life more there won’t be anything left.”

Nick Johnson from Pongakawa firm Trenching and Irrigation NZ, set to be the new owners, says it is about 15 years since he started to think the site might be ideal for the business. The plan is to demolish the building and build a shed to be used as a workshop.

Any approaches had been knocked back until now.

“When Nick approached me [most recently] the decision had actually been made that previous month - I’d decided, okay, I’ve got to make serious plans to do something. The building was coming down no matter what, it was whether I developed the site or just moved on - so it was just the right time, it’s time for me to move on.”

Jean says she will be sorry to see it go but “change has got to happen”.

“It would never make a fortune in today’s world as a corner store,” she says.

■ Do you have any memories or historic photographs of Pongakawa Store and Service Station? Let us know by sending an email to news@tepuketimes.co.nz