Stuff Digital Edition

Only cafes on ‘adventure’ highway for sale

Tarawera Cafe and the Summit Cafe, the only two cafes on a 140-kilometre stretch of ‘‘adventure’’ highway between Napier and Taupo, are up for sale.

Owners of the cafes, Jim and Marie Andrew, have decided it is time to sell and have placed the two hospitality businesses on the market.

Born and bred in the area, Jim Andrew said the place had a rich history. Originally it was the site of the historic Tarawera Hot Springs Hotel, which operated for decades until the mid 1960s when it burnt down and was replaced with a tavern.

The Andrews bought that in 2008 and decided a year later to convert it into a cafe, and have not looked back.

‘‘It took off. It’s a very, very successful business,’’ Andrew said.

A couple of years later they purchased the Summit Cafe about 13 kilometres up the road towards Napier.

It was certainly a business advantage to own the only two cafes between Napier and Taupo, Andrew said.

It was a popular stop for travellers, hunters and truckies just about half-way between Napier and Taupo on a notoriously hilly and winding road where they could take a break and bite to eat.

It consists of a 245 square metre Lockwood building, plus modernised two-bedroom owners’ accommodation and three smaller studio lodges. It also offered a kitchen block, a caravan, and motorhome facility with seven powered sites.

The largely flat total land area is 8349sqm, just over 2 acres.

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency has recently completed a new entrance into the site making it easier to access for traffic travelling east or west.

The property has a rateable value of just $270,000, estimated to be about a fifth of the market value.

Andrew said a lot of people were moving from the rat race in Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga, selling at the high end and moving to less expensive properties in the Hawke’s Bay with money in the bank

‘‘It’s a beautiful lifestyle area. For the right people to come in here and have the lifestyle and have the income with it, you can’t go wrong.’’

In the stagecoach era the Tarawera Hotel on the site was one of the stops on the four-day NapierTaupo journey. Today photographs of that period through to building the road and the arrival of motor vehicles decorate the cafe’s walls.

The Summit Cafe is another local landmark on a highway with limited stopping options. It sits atop the Te Haroto hill on land of 2728sqm with wide views of the

rugged Ruahine ranges, providing great hunting country.

The Summit is also more than a coffee stop. It occupies 58sqm with an adjoining hunter and tramper’s dormitory of 70sqm. The owners’

or manager’s accommodation is a three-bedroom home with additional storage.

Lewis O’Donnell and Iain Bradley from Gollins Commercial’s Napier office are marketing

the properties.

They said it had immediate potential for growth and development.

‘‘Traffic volumes on the highway have increased with greater domestic tourism in the past year, along with hunters and trampers not venturing overseas,’’ they said.

The Andrews saw the opportunities but it was time to let the next owners take advantage of them.

O’Donnell doesn’t rule out new owners converting the Summit cafe to a private lifestyle property. The rateable value was $390,000, somewhat unrelated to the market value.

Business

en-nz

2021-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282394107596375

Stuff Limited