Ferry crossing returns lake trips of past

RECREATING HISTORY: The Lake Ferry Hotel's new ferry is taken for a test drive. PHOTO/GORDON WYETH

The owners of the Lake Ferry Hotel have bought a boat to recreate a crossing many early settlers in Wairarapa would have taken.

Mary Tipoki, who owns the hotel with husband Maurice, said they planned to run a commercial ferry service between the west and east side of Lake Onoke this year.

"We've bought this vessel to recreate the history of the hotel in terms of providing transport across the lake."

She said the boat takes up to nine people and they were looking into running cruises on the lake as well.

"We envisage a little more than just going across the lake to pick people up, back then it was only across the mouth, a short distance."

The publicans had taken the boat out for a spin last week and for Mrs Tipoki, who has a love for history, it had a real sense of recreating part of the area's past, she said.

"The ferry was fundamental to Wairarapa, without that little boat the early settlers couldn't get here.

"I've heard it said Lake Ferry is the birthplace of the Wairarapa."

Mrs Tipoki said the first ferry service was operated by Maori.

Following a drowning in 1850, a ferryman was appointed and to supplement his income residents decided to establish a hotel in 1851 and combine the role of publican and ferryman.

The Lake Ferry settlement was so named because the first publican, William Ardley, was licensed on condition he row travellers from Wellington across the mouth of the lake.

Mrs Tipoki said the licence was never revoked, but the service stopped operating in the 1960s.

She said the boat will be named "Te Where", the Maori translation of "The Ferry".

"We want to do it in Maori to incorporate the two cultures, to acknowledge both Maori and European."

Mrs Tipoki said they had been encouraged to run the service by Destination Wairarapa to take advantage of the growing number of visitors on the Rimutaka Cycle Trail, which runs down the lake's western shore.

She said the service was not too far away but they were still arranging the right permits.

According to the 1882 "Lower Lake Ferry Scale of Tolls" noticeboard, the ferry cost one shilling for every passenger to cross and for "a horse with man in charge", one shilling and sixpence.