New Zealand Odyssey: The Rat Trap, Upper Takaka

'New Zealand Odyssey', published in 1989 by Heinemann, was authored by me, Don Donovan (who did the text and illustrations) and Euan Sarginson, who did the photography and design. In this series of blog posts, I will publish some of my drawings.

This drawing was done in 1988. I've drawn the pub several times since and it appeared in my book 'The Good Old Kiwi Pub'. This is what I wrote about it then:


'The Rat Trap, built in 1903, guarded the only road exit from the Takaka Valley to Riwaka, Motueka and the market gardens of Tasman Bay. I painted it on a number of occasions because it offered such a welcoming prospect after the breathtaking descent into the valley from the limestone heights of Takaka Hill-the "Marble Mountain".


'While well-known all over Nelson Province, the pub was never more popular than in the late 1930s when more than five hundred workers were constructing the hydroelectric dam in nearby Cobb Valley. That’s when the Upper Takaka Hotel was given its nickname. Life was hard at the remote dam site and the men sometimes became ’stir crazy’, so much so that absenteeism, caused by workers not returning to camp after making supply trips, became commonplace.


'"Where are the men?" the overseer would demand.


'The answer would come, "Caught in the Rat Trap!"


'They solved the problem by buying truckloads of beer from the pub and selling it in the works canteen. They bought so much that the Rat Trap’s beer sales were greater than any other pub in Nelson Province.  


'It’s still possible to get trapped in Golden Bay if the hill is closed by snow and ice but, sadly, you won’t find comfort at the Rat Trap; it burned to the ground on 19 May 1994. It’s a tragic story; a husband and wife were proprietors and she, with tortured mind, fired the place which had trapped her and turned her into what her defence counsel at her arson trial described as ‘a lonely and terrified woman’. With heartening compassion the jury found her not guilty.


'I grieve for her, her husband and the old Rat Trap.' 


© DON DONOVAN
donovan@ihug.co.nz
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The Rat Trap Re-visited

I wrote and illustrated ‘The Good Old Kiwi Pub’. It was published in 1995 it was a snapshot of some New Zealand pubs as they were at the end of the 20th century. I have decided to share some of the entries from the book from time to time on this blog.

The book contained 37 pubs, inns, taverns or hotels (call them what you will). This is the final page.

On 19 May 1994 The Upper Takaka Tavern, for years affectionately known as ‘The Rat Trap’, suffered the same fate as many other pubs in New Zealand’s history.

At the time I wrote and illustrated this book, the latest such fires had been on 26 October 1994 at the Burkes Pass Hotel, the central portion of which was 133 years old, and on 4 February 1995 at the New Empire Hotel, Hamilton. Perhaps ‘The Good Old Kiwi Pub’ may serve as a reminder that the old pubs, which, like old soldiers, seem fated slowly to fade away, were much more than drinking holes; they played a big part in the social, economic and geographical development of the New Zealand we have today and so deserve a valued place in our history.

Don Donovan, Albany, 1995 [Re-published 2012]

© DON DONOVAN 
donovan@ihug.co.nz
.

Country Churches of NZ 116. Former Presbyterian Church, Lawrence, Otago

I wrote and illustrated Country Churches of New Zealand. It was published in 2002 by New Holland, Publishers and is still on sale in bookshops. The publishers have kindly agreed to me re-publishing some of the book’s images and descriptions in this blog.

FORMER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, LAWRENCE

Forgive me this flight of fancy - I wasn't at the burning of the old Presbyterian Church at Lawrence. But the shell from which the flames issue is as it was when I visited it.

It was another of R. A. Lawson's designs, built in 1886 in one of the richest of New Zealand's goldfields.

As for the fire: I can do no better than quote parts of a report from the Otago Daily Times of 1 October 1998:
'... Lawrence police believe [the fire] that destroyed the historic Presbyterian Church [was] deliberately lit. The church, built in 1886 ... has been used as a dwelling since a new church was built. The building was not demolished because it is protected by the Historic Places Trust. The Lawrence and Waitahuna Fire Brigades were called to the church at 4.15 am yesterday. They arrived to find the building well alight ... The owner... was believed to be in Dunedin and police were trying to contact... A Ford Escort van, parked outside the house, was also on fire. The church and the car were both extensively damaged and a fire brigade spokesman... said he believed the church would have to be demolished.'

But it's still there...*

* By 2008 the building had been restored and is now ‘luxury boutique accommodation, with a touch of the monastery’.

© DON DONOVAN
donovan@ihug.co.nz
.