Changing the guard at Mussel Rock

Dave Collard has pulled more pints than most but it will all be over when he shuts the doors at Mussel Rock Cafe Bar in Kaitaia's main street tomorrow night.

Dave and wife Lee, who opened the business in what had most recently been Kaitaia's branch of Westpac Bank, have sold to Joel Hobson. The Far North born and bred man is back home after working as a chef, mainly in Auckland and on the Gold Coast.

He officially takes over on Monday.

Dave, son of Patsy and the late Trevor (TC) Collard, confessed earlier this week that Plan A was for a career as an accountant but a couple of years at Auckland University was more than enough. He dropped out to join brother Peter as owners of the Mercer Tavern, following in his parents' footsteps and launching a lifelong association with the hospitality industry.

He was born in Wanganui, where his father made pies for a living. The family moved to Awanui in 1958, where his parents bought the hotel, their second (after the hostelry at Tikitiki, on the East Coast). In 1966, they built a hotel on Norfolk Island and by the time Dave had completed his education they were in Opotiki, followed by Whitianga.

Dave moved to Kaitaia to manage the hotel there after Peter bought him out in Mercer, before he and wife Lee crossed the Tasman to run a pub in Sydney for a couple of years. They returned in 1980, to the Whakatane Commercial Hotel, followed by Te Kuiti, an industrial lunch bar in Auckland, then a hotel in Paeroa, and in 1984 Kaitaia's Star Bar (now the Gecko Cafe).

Trevor and Patsy built the Collard Tavern in Kaitaia in 1987, Dave working there, and at the Star Bar, until 1991. Nine years later, he and Lee opened Mussel Rock, where they have remained for an uncharacteristically long time.

"This is the longest I've been in one place," Dave said, adding that having his ears reamed out by a band at the Kauri Arms Tavern had inspired the new business.

"I went there one Friday night to watch the Super Rugby, as one did in those days, and at half time the band struck up and blew us out of the room.

"I went home and said to hell with this, I'm going to open a bar of my own."

Earlier this week, he was well into change-over mode, Joel having only arrived back in the Far North the day before (from Tauranga, where he said he had spent the last year cooking and diving).

"I've basically been opening new businesses for the last three or four years, practising for getting a place of my own," he said.

"I was stoked when (Mussel Rock) came along."

Dave had some good advice for him. He had seen others come and go during the last 13 years, he said, all intent on putting him out of business, none of them succeeding.

"People should worry more about what they are doing than what I'm doing," he said.

While he won't be pulling pints as of home time on Friday night, he doesn't expect to be idle. He will continue to play a leading role in staging the 90 Mile Beach Snapper Bonanza, and will be seeking election to the Far North District Council and the Northland DHB on October 12.

"That'll be enough at this stage I think," he said.