"Stories these walls could tell"- Lake House Hotel Rotorua History

Lake House Hotel Rotorua being demolished photo June 2018 courtesy Chris Ball

Last week in June 2018 we visited Rotorua - a favorite spot for a holiday. To our surprise, we found the Lake House Hotel, Ohinemutu, Rotorua under demolition  This Hotel, which for many years was an icon of Rotorua, was opened 142 years ago in 1872.Then, the Lake House Hotel was known as the Ohinemutu Hotel. Hone Werahiko was  proprietor then.

Courtesy Papers Past, National Library NZ Page 1 Advertisements Column 3

Daily Southern Cross 8 January, 1873

 

 Advertisements appearing in newspapers during the first several months of 1873 assured potential patrons of this new Rotorua Hotel, a paddock for horses - essential in those days before the railway and petrol driven vehicles. An added incentive was the near by Hot Springs which, back then travellers and tourists headed to,  believing these had medicinal qualities. Robert Graham, who became an owner with second wife Jane, of the Ohinemutu  hotel  in 1880, also believed this to be so along with  the value of " health resorts."

Looking from Ohinemutu location of Ohinemutu Hotel toward Lake Rotorua and Mokoia Island  linked with the stories of Ohinemutu - photo in Cyclopaedia NZ Auckland Province 1902

Graham added Ohinemutu Hotel  to his already owned Waiwera Hotel Waiwera and  Terraces Hotel Te Wairoa. Later in 1886 the Geyser House Hotel, Huka Falls, Wairakei was built on land gifted in 1879 to Graham by Poihipi, a Taupo Chief.

Waiwera Hotel courtesy

In: The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 45 Robert Graham Waiwera Hot Springs near Auckland, N.Z. 1876 Victoria University of Wellington Library, Wellington

Later in 1886 the Geyser House Hotel, Huka Falls, Wairakei was built on land gifted in 1879 to Graham by Poihipi, a Taupo Chief. Wairakei being another thermal area.

Geyser House Hotel , Huka Falls, Wairakei from Cyclopaedia NZ, Auckland Province 1902

 Hone Werahiko, said to have been born near Rotorua, is said to have also been a store keeper at Ohinemutu and a part of the community living there. A natural progression to include also, proprietor of the Ohinemutu Hotel.

Ohinemutu had for many years, been  known for the Hot thermal Springs and the Pa on the edges of Lake Rotorua. This by European tourists, early missionaries and explorers.

William Colenso, printer, missionary and explorer ,  back in 1841 - 1842 visiting Te Ngae and Ohinemutu, wrote:-

" I remained at Te Ngae for a few days; during which time I visited Ohinemutu, a large and fenced town on the banks of the lake, celebrated for its boiling springs.

 

This village is one of the principal ones belonging to that very turbulent tribe, Ngatiwakaaue; in it the head chiefs of the tribe have for a long time resided.The large spring at this place was boiling most furiously, throwing out many gallons of water a minute, which rolled away steaming and smoking into the lake, a second Phlegethon." ( Colenso, 1844)

Colenso observed the method of using the boiling water in smaller springs to cook their food.

By 1859, a number of tourists had visited Ohinemutu, with reports of bathing, washing and cooking pools. von Hochstetter geologist and  explorer who visited New Zealand on the Novara shared his observances on Ohinemutu at a Lecture 
held at the Auckland Mechanics Institute. The Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle reporting on Hochstetter's lecture quoted:-

" I must also state my conviction that ere long these hot springs will be visited by many travellers, not only for the sake of their beauty and interest, but also for the medicinal virtues they have been proved to possess. Already many Europeans have bathed in, and derived benefit from, the warm waters at Orakeikorako and Rotomahana."  ( Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle 03/08/1859)

 Hochstetter in 1867 wrote about his visit to Ohinemutu, meeting  Pini te korekore chief of Ohinemutu and Ruapeka bay which formed  the centre of the hot springs, along with the silica formations.

Dr. von Hochstetter, Ferdinand. NEW ZEALAND ITS PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY CHAPTER XVIII: Ngawhas, and Puia; boiling springs, solfataras and fumarole 1867  p 421-422 in ENZB ( Early New Zealand Books, University of Auckland )

That was back before the Mount Tarawera Eruption on 10 June 1886  which caused destruction to what was then known as one of the wonders of the world - the Pink and White Terraces - Te Otukapuarangi ("The fountain of the clouded sky") and  Te Tarata ( "the tattooed rock"). Tourists travelled from all over the world to the area to view the terraces and to bathe in the hot thermal waters, including those at Ohinemutu. It was said that these thermal waters had healing qualities. 

In a letter to the editor, New Zealand Herald, "Un Voyageur" wrote in 1875:

" slept comfortably at the hotel of Mr.Hannon, who is also proprietor of the line of coaches between Napier and Tauranga, and a first-rate companion. The hotel has a verandah at the back, having a magnificent view of the lake, and overlooking the whole settlement,—sunny and sheltered from the cold winds. I can imagine an- invalid spending the day on the verandah, and finding amusement in the beauty of the, scenery, watching the bathers in the lake, and the natives at their various occupations'; but, alas '. this verandah is devoted to the purpose of a wash-house, and on going into it, instead of seeing several easy chairs, you are shocked at the sight of sundry tubs of soapsuds."

( New Zealand Herald, 24 November 1875, page 5)

The Mr. Hannon, referred to by "Un Voyageur", was by then, three years after opening date, Proprietor of the Ohinemutu Hotel, having acquired it from Mr. Hone Werahiko. 

The year before on 8 September 1874, Werahiko lost his wife Arahia to the scalding waters of the hot pools, when it was said she slipped and fell in. The outcome of this sad incident is that another publican of Ohinemutu , one Albert Fisher, had his license cancelled for serving drink to Arahia. Also in the years 1874 - 1880, when Douglas Graham acquired the Ohinemuri Hotel amid controversy, one Isaac Wilson , was recorded as proprietor.  

Lake House Hotel under demolition  June 2018 - photo Chris Ball

Werahiko turned his attentions from running a hotel to prospecting for gold. In 1880 he was attributed with the " first find" on the new Te Aroha Goldfield. In May 1883 Werahiko died at Thames Hospital.

This was a new era also for the Ohinemutu Hotel. Under the ownership of Graham, the name was changed to the Lake House Hotel. Graham too died before the Tarawera Eruption with his second wife continuing proprietorship until 1888. Colourful, were the stories of those early years of the hotel and its various proprietors, a part of the past of Rotorua history.

Reference Source:

• Dr. von Hochstetter, Ferdinand. NEW ZEALAND ITS PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY CHAPTER XVIII: Ngawhas, and Puia; boiling springs, solfataras and fumarole 1867  p 421-422 in ENZB ( Early New Zealand Books, University of Auckland )

• Douglas Graham. 'Graham, Robert', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 1990, updated August, 2011. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1g17/graham-robert (accessed 21 June 2018) 
•  In: The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 45 Robert Graham Waiwera Hot Springs near Auckland, N.Z. 1876 Victoria University of Wellington Library, Wellington
• LECTURE ON THE GEOLOGY OF THE PROVINCE OF AUCKLAND. BY DR. F. VON HOCHSTETTER [Delivered to the Members of the Auckland Mechanics' Institute, June 24, 1859 courtesy Papers Past NZ National Library Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle 3 August 1859        Page 1 (Supplement)
•  Daily Southern Cross 8 January, 1873
•  Waka Maori, 22 September 1874, Page 234
• Waka Maori  1 December 1874 Page 302    
• Thames Advertiser 6 November 1880 Page 4       
• Thames Star 22 May 1883 Page 2
• Kete Rotorua : Buildings   http://rotorua.kete.net.nz/rotorua_local_history_buildings/topics/show/667-rotorua-hotels-motels-guest-houses-1870s-1970s-k-lake-house-hotel