A night at the castle

Saturday 8 February

After Friday’s busy busy times, we changed down a gear. Negotiated a late checkout so Louis went for a swim in Lake Rua at Roto Kohatu Reserve and I changed and washed the bed linen - back to our favourite duvet cover!

Next stop was the truck wash to hose off all the dust & dirt Banjo had accumulated in the last few weeks - so she wouldn’t show up the shiny clean Pajero!

Eventually we set off on SH1 heading south. Had a picnic at Dunsandel as the acclaimed Store there had pretty much sold out!

Then we kept on trekking southbound through Ashburton (Kmart & Repco stops) and Temuka (mental note to stop there in future - it looked cool)

Then finally we turned off inland just short of Timaru and after about 20km we turned into the driveway of 222 Mt Horrible Road (great address!) otherwise known as Claremont Castle. What an amazing place to be able to spend the night!

Built in the 1880s this historic building is now privately owned and Rob hosts guests for weddings, AirBnB bookings and has up to ten camping spaces out the back! We got chatting in the evening - he was fascinated that I was barefoot, perhaps this is not a South Island thing? I asked about the long low building that was near our camping space and he took me on a tour of the whole place - this building had been a dormitory area for the Marist priests who came here for training in the mid twentieth century (which was also when the chapel had been built) and Rob had taken out the partitions and it was now a long gabled room used for banquets and wedding breakfasts. He has hosted around 100 weddings over the last 20 or so years - but he steers well clear once the booking and basic arrangements have been sorted, making it a bit of a dream as each couple can decorate, BYO booze, hire their own caterer etc - which is always cheaper than anything a venue locks you into!

Moving on from there to the chapel and thence the house, he shared how he fell in love with the place and bought it pretty much on the spot. It was not in a great state at that point, but the bones of the house were solid and all the original carved woodwork remained. Fossicking about in the attic he found the mantel topper for the hallway fireplace broken down for storage which he promptly got reassembled - it is stunning!

The dining room had Downton vibes and he keeps it laid up for dinner at all times. The wood carving throughout the downstairs was phenomenal - particularly the huge arch over the window in the billiards room, the hallway stairs and all of the doors.

Rob apologised for not being able so show me the TEN bedrooms upstairs, but he rents two of them out for AirBnB and there were guests in situ. Going out through the wonderful kitchen he had breakfast all set up at the centre island for them - what an experience (which, we checked online, only costs about $200 per room per night!)

The one thing out of place in the whole house was in the study - while he was relating how he tried to buy replica rifles for the original gun safe, but they were madly expensive, so he bought books by the metre from his local op shop instead... I spotted a framed guitar on the wall, a Fender Strat signed by all of the Rolling Stones! This is clearly a prized possession - he bought it at a charity auction at SkyCity many years ago... he told how it was the last lot of the night, everyone was drunk as a skunk and it came down to a bidding war between him and a table of real estate agents - no way was he letting them win!

Wow - anyone got a spare NZ$4M?!? For the castle, not the Fender!