Mt Difficulty consent allows for 80-seat restaurant

Mt Difficulty.

The granting of land use consent for a multimillion-dollar expansion of the Mt Difficulty cellar door and restaurant complex is "great news" and means final design work can take place, Mt Difficulty general manager and winemaker Matt Dicey says.

The Central Otago District Council granted the consent earlier this month after the council's hearings panel heard the application in December.

It will allow the construction of an 80-seat restaurant and expansion of the existing tasting facility at Mt Difficulty, near Bannockburn. A new car park will also be built.

When the development was announced in September last year, Mr Dicey said it would be a "multimillion-dollar" project.

Yesterday, he said the council consent had been "one of the things we were waiting on" before completing design work.

This would now be done and the project put to tender.

The timeline for the project would depend on how long final design took and then contractor availability.

But he hoped construction would begin this year.

• Land use consent was given to establish a restaurant-cafe at the Freeway Orchard site, near Cromwell.

The restaurant will be known as The Stoaker Room. The applicant, Quintin Brady Quider, is the operator of the Wild Earth restaurant and cellar door operation at the Goldfields Mining Centre, in the Kawarau Gorge, but the lease expired in September and new premises were required.

The restaurant will seat up to 125 patrons between a tasting room, uncovered courtyard and outside marquee.

• Off Road Expeditions Queenstown Ltd has been granted land use consent that will enable the Naseby Lodge to open its restaurant and function facilities to the public.

The consent is to operate a restaurant and bar at 28 Derwent St in conjunction with an existing traveller accommodation and function venue. The applicant did not seek to increase the number of guests hosted (65), but to increase the nature and frequency of the activity.

• Land use consent was granted to P.A. and M.E. Bramwell and D. Schumack to allow traveller accommodation and selling food and beverages to guests at the former Ben Nevis Station, in the Nevis Valley. The applicant will host up to 14 guests in two existing buildings, and a maximum of four staff members associated with the accommodation operation can stay at the farm manager's dwelling.

pam.jones@odt.co.nz