With a significant investment already spent on the project and much more to come, the development both saves and preserves the historic site, as well as retaining an important cultural hub for a rapidly growing community.
“Everybody in the Horowhenua has some sort of connection to Tatum,” Bishop said.
“I spent time there as a kid, we would have our soccer breakups there and we got married there. The bones are really good, and we’re delighted to be the people to revamp it for the next 50 years.”
The restored homestead is the heart of the property with dining and function spaces and luxury boutique accommodation all available.
For several decades after Tatum’s death in 1943, the estate was an important focal point for the national scouting movement and some of that has been preserved, with areas such as the Cooksey Campfire Circle, a unique function space under massive native trees. Camping areas have also been retained, but upgraded to “glamping”, with luxury tents. The name of the new onsite restaurant, Jamboree, is also a gentle nod to the scouting connection with the property.
A training and events centre built on the property in the 1960s has also been fully restored and updated, and will serve as a wedding and venue event centre, complete with a large commercial kitchen.
Other function spaces on the property allow for both indoor and outdoor events covering everything from intimate gatherings for a dozen guests through to large events for 200 people. Newly built accommodation buildings can sleep up to 84 guests on-site in a mixture of accommodation offerings.
With the town’s main trunk line passing through the estate, the venue also has the opportunity to offer chartered train services in the future, in collaboration with Steam Incorporated.
Bishop is excited by the project.
“I’m incredibly proud of the way that it’s presented now. It had been let go way too far and we needed to do something different to save it. Now, seeing it nearing completion we’re realising that what we’re putting on the ground now is a really high-class facility that will be there for generations to come.
“And that is only just stage one. Stage two will be a quaint bespoke retirement village around there as well. We are putting a golf driving range out there very soon as well, when we get consent, and that will be operating for the next summer, 2025.”
Locals will be able to find out for themselves what the venue is like, with a grand opening of the restaurant, Jamboree, this weekend.
Bishop said events such as winegrowers’ dinners, degustation dinners and high teas are planned for the restaurant, to make good use of on-site head chef Ray Parimathawut.
Open-air cinema nights and music events are also planned to help put Tatum back into the heart of the local community, Bishop said.
“A regional community needs all of these kinds of facilities to be available to its population to really operate properly, and we sometimes undersell ourselves in the Horowhenua by not providing some of these things.
“So, I guess that’s where the whole motivation came from – to actually invest in something which is really cool, and right up to the standard of the best venues in Palmerston North, Kāpiti or Wellington or anywhere in the region.
“And I think we’ve done that.”
The details:
What: Jamboree Opening Weekend
When: October 25-27, 11am to 4pm daily.
11am-4pm | October 25-27, 2024
Where: Tatum Park, 850 State Highway 1, Manakau
Details: Bouncy castle for children to enjoy. Live music.
Ilona Hanne is a Taranaki-based journalist who covers breaking and community news from across the region. She has worked for NZME since 2011.
