Historic Birdcage Tavern on the move for slow two day trip back home

The Birdcage Tavern, built in 1886 as the Rob Roy Hotel. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Auckland's historic Birdcage Tavern has begun the crawl back home, after an eight-month shift to allow a motorway tunnel to be built.

The NZ Transport Agency and its partners on the Victoria Park Tunnel project pulled Auckland's oldest pub, originally known as the Rob Roy Hotel, the first 1.8 metres of its 44m-long journey back from farther up Franklin Rd yesterday morning. The trip is expected to take at least two days.

The pub will return to where it was built 125 years ago, but this time will be on top of the southern gateway to the tunnel, which is expected to be open to traffic in November. The 600-tonne brick tavern was shifted in August.

There is a viewing area off Franklin Rd for anyone wanting to see the building inching its way back down the hill. The initial move attracted thousands of onlookers.

Tommy Parker, NZTA's state highways manager for Auckland, said the agency was committed to preserving what was important to the community.

"While the Victoria Park Tunnel is being built in the middle of Auckland, it is a project that has more to it than just concrete and steel," Mr Parker says.

NZTA will continue to own the building, which will be refurbished as part of a plaza development around it.

Expressions of interest for a hospitality-type business on the ground floor will be called for next week.

The hotel's double move is costing around $2.5 million.

The cost of the Victoria Park Tunnel is $230 million. It will allow traffic to travel north to the Harbour Bridge while the existing flyover will take traffic south.

- NZPA