Sweet turn for historic local tavern

PURCHASE: Laurel Boaz outside her new purchase, the Hukerenui Cafe and Tavern.PHOTO/MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM

THE first time Laurel Boaz visited the Hukerenui Hotel's bar, she was a flower-power loving teenager screaming for her drummer boyfriend who played the tavern with the local band.

The tavern is much quieter these days - coffee, cakes and the occasional beer are served by Laurel - the new owner who still has a cheeky twinkle in her eye recalling the tavern in the '60s when she visited from her Whangarei home.

The 122-year-old hotel reopened as the Hukerenui Cafe and Tavern last Saturday having closed in 2013, when owners Bob McGregor and Wilma Crayford were forced to shut up shop.

Despite success with the hotel for nine years, they faced the pressures that most rural taverns do with stricter drink-driving laws, tighter consumer purse strings and fading tavern regulars.

Mr McGregor had provided the land, and elbow grease, to support the Jack Morgan Museum next door, which served to boost the hotel's attraction to passing tourists.

Ms Boaz bought the hotel two months ago and has vowed to retain the hospitality heritage.

"The locals are delighted that someone has been able to keep this place open. We didn't want to see it close down - it's a piece of history.

"We already have Christmas parties booked in."

Having returned from Victoria 18 months ago, where she farmed sheep and dairy with her son Evan (28), she said she was keen on focusing her future in Hukerenui with the seven-day-a-week operation.

The upstairs will remain private residence but there are three backpacker units being developed, and a cafe and tavern opening from 11am to 5pm from Sunday to Wednesday and 11am to 10pm Thursday to Saturday.

While the famous Huka Pie is no more, the cafe is now home of the Huka Burger.

Ms Boaz's new energy for the business has seen her keep the heritage and add some modern twists.

"We do take-away coffee now too," she said.

The walls of the cafe also pay homage to the history of the hotel with large images from the archives of the Keatleys, ancestors of Jack Keatley who owned the hotel from 1917 to 1974.

The hotel, which was built in 1890, had once faced the North Auckland railway line. When the modern road network arrived, now the State Highway 1, the hotel had to be picked up and rotated to greet guests from the other side.

"Many of the maids who came to work here ended up marrying local farmers. There are great stories with this hotel," said Ms Boaz.

Monochrome images of larger than life characters donated by the Morgans also adorn the cafe and serve as a reminder that the hotel continues to beat at the heart of the community.