- The Seddonville Hotel, saved from fire by locals using beer, is for sale at $679,000.
- Owner Dean White spent $300,000 on repairs after the fire.
- The hotel, also a motel and post office, attracts mountain bikers and hikers from the Old Ghost Road trail.
A West Coast pub saved from fire after locals doused the flames in beer has hit the market for sale.
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The Seddonville Hotel, in the tiny historic coal mining town of Seddonville, has a price tag of $679,000 and is being offered to buyers along with two neighbouring sections.
Vendor Dean White told OneRoof he was lucky to have a pub to sell. In July last year, the property caught fire following a gas fault.
The town’s post office and dairy are run from the bar. Photo / Supplied
The block of six motel units is popular with mountain bikers and hikers doing the Old Ghost Road rail. Photo / Supplied
The heat and flames melted the water pipes and wiped out the power supply to the pub.
When the fire extinguishers ran out, White and some locals grabbed bottles of beer from the chillers and started pouring the amber liquid on the flames.
Their quick thinking saved the pub from further disaster, and now after $300,000 worth of repair work, it is on the market for sale looking like a newly built hotel.
White told OneRoof he moved to Seddonville with his young family three years ago. They had been living in Whitianga, in the Coromandel, and had decided to buy the hotel building – which included two separate empty sections as part of the deal – after driving past a “for sale” sign.
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They had enjoyed their time at the helm of the pub but had decided to sell up and spend six months travelling around New Zealand before their oldest daughter started high school.
“It’s pretty cool. It’s like going back in time. When I was a kid, we used to grow up at the beach and you could light fires and ride your motorbikes on the beach. You can’t do that anywhere up north, but you can still do that here,” he said.
Seddonville has a population of around 100 people, some of whom live off-grid. “A lot of the people I handle the post for here are off-grid, but they are still online and getting Temu packages every day, so it’s not isolated,” he said.
The triangle section, which is across the road from the hotel, is for sale for $75.000. Photo / Supplied
The Seddonville Hotel isn’t just a pub, it’s a motel, a dairy and a post office. “If we weren’t here, there’d be nothing else in town, apart from the residents.”
White said the new owner could choose to run the hotel as it is now or turn the building into a residence.
He said he gets plenty of business from mountain bikers and hikers coming off the Old Ghost Road trail.
“We are right in the middle – so they come of the Old Ghost Road and go straight to the Heaphy Track or vice versa,” he said.
A larger 2385sqm fenced section next to the hotel, which is used for grazing sheep, has a slightly higher price tag of $159,000. Photo / Supplied
“When they’ve done four nights in the huts all they want is a bed and we’ve got nice mattresses, and we give them a good steak and a cold beer and they are happy as Larry.”
He added that during whitebaiting season in September and October, all six rooms were solidly booked.
Ray White listing agent Di Wright said Seddonville was an outdoors paradise offering everything from world-class fishing in the Mokihinui River to surfing in the Tasman Sea.
Wright is also the listing agent for two neighbouring sections which are currently used for grazing.
The triangle-shaped property on Mokihinui Road can be bought for $75,000, while across the road at 1 Queen Street a larger section is on the market for $159,000.
Wright said White had tried to sell all three properties together but the offering failed to hit the mark. They were now being sold separately.
“That makes the pub cheaper and gives two other people the opportunity to buy a section in the area.”
Wright said Seddonville tended to attract people looking for an affordable area to escape the rat race or holidaymakers who wanted a place to park their motorhome.
“It’s a mix of people.”
- 2 Mokihinui Road, Seddonville, West Coast, is for sale for $679,000; 0 Mokihinui Road, Seddonville, is for sale for $75,000; and 1 Queen Street, Seddonville, has an asking price of $159,000
