Let it snow! The Chateau Tongariro is a palatial pad from another era.
Let it snow! The Chateau Tongariro is a palatial pad from another era.
This weekend the Chateau Tongariro closes and the hunt for new owners begins.
On Tuesday the historic Grade 1 Listed hotel at the Whakapapa village made the shock announcement that it would be closing permanently on Waitangi Day, February 6.
The hotel’s operators said the decision was made after a seismic survey of the building.
The Chateau has been leased to the Kah Corporation Ltd for the past 30 years. When a long-term lease ended in April 2020, the hotel’s owners did not renew it.
Coming at the start of the pandemic tourism downturn, they instead continued as tenants of the Department of Conservation and iwi Ngāti Tūwharetoa and Ngāti Hikairo Ki Tongariro on a rolling monthly basis.
Tongariro operations manager for DoC, George Taylor, says it was only this week that they learned the owners would be leaving.
“On Tuesday we were informed by the hotel business operators Kah New Zealand that the hotel will close and the property be handed over to the department.”
Taylor says Kah continues to occupy the hotel during the handover period. While the renewal of a long-term lease is still on offer, structural repairs will have to be addressed by any potential lessee.
Mt Ruapehu erupts behind the Chateau, 1996. Photo / Alan Gibson
“DoC thanks Kah New Zealand for their commitment to the region and operating this iconic hotel for more than 30 years and supports their decision,” says Taylor.
“Our understanding is the Chateau is in need of renovation, which includes structural upgrades so that the site can meet current seismic safety standards.
“There are no current estimates of what that work could cost.”
Kevin Peeris, the hotel’s Singapore-based vice-president of commercial, announced the permanent closure of the hotel this week. However, he says, the company was already scaling back operations from last year.
“Sale restrictions were actually introduced in the second half of 2022 due to labour shortages at the Chateau, a problem that the entire New Zealand hospitality industry was and is still facing,” he says.
“We decided to stop taking on new bookings only once initial information was received from the draft seismic assessment, which in hindsight was the right decision to make.”
Discussions on the immediate future and potential owners of the historic hotel are still ongoing, but would likely come with long and costly rectification works.
On Tuesday, Kah New Zealand said it had been given 25 years with the possibility of an extension of a further 10 years to undertake rectification works. However, Peeris said this was “not financially viable”.
“Any potential new operator should make inquiries directly with DoC,” says Peeris.
Chateau Tongariro has been a mid-winter favourite since the 1920s. Photo / Collections, Te Papa
Tributes to New Zealand’s hotel
Up until 1990, when the hotel was leased to Kah New Zealand, the Grand Chateau was government-owned.
Since 1932 it had been the seat of New Zealand’s National Park Board and has, in turns, been used by the Health Department, the Air Force and the Tourist Hotel Corporation. Being used interchangeably as an army post, asylum and a luxury hotel over the past hundred years, the Chateau has collected many stories.
Since the news on Tuesday, tributes have poured in for the Grand Hotel.
On the hotel’s Facebook Page, posters remember honeymoons, holidays and even a few life-saving rescue operations.
“Thank you Chateau for your many occurrences on a humanitarian basis,” wrote LandSAR volunteer and outdoors guide Cliff Jones.
“20 years ago this year you supported a really big search and rescue mission that worked tirelessly to rescue a little French toddler, 2.5-year-old Jeanne Chavance.”
High tea at Chateau Tongariro. Photo / Supplied
Others remember the hotel surviving the dramatic 1996 eruption of Mt Ruapehu.
Former staff and guests from around the world also said they were sad to see the Chateau closed.
“This place has been a treasure trove of happy memories for me since I worked here in the late 80s/early 90s,” wrote Polly Sack.
“I’ve returned twice to stay, dragging my husband out from the UK to visit the old girl.”
Turid Revfeim of the Royal New Zealand Ballet said her grandparents met working at the hotel when it first opened in the 1930s.
“My Norwegian grandfather was one of the first ski instructors at the slopes and my grandmother, who was from a farm near Burke’s Pass, was a hostess there.”
