Welcome to our our guest house, The Chalet, an iconic Kiwi mountain bach, in Raurimu (row-ree-mu), a village on the Central Plateau of New Zealand’s North Island. Raurimu is 5 km north of National Park, just where SH4 starts to drop off the Plateau. Once a thriving community of 1500+ timber worker, railroaders and their families, Raurimu now only has a population of a few dozen.
It’s main claim to fame is the Raurimu Spiral which lifts the Main Truck Railway some 200 metres up to the Plateau. For many years, a road connection was used to link the north and south legs of the line until the Spiral was completed in 1908. It is considered the 8th Engineering Wonder of the World.
We bought the Chalet in 2004 as a quick doer-upper for rapid disposal; the row of mature pine trees along the fence line were also an atttraction and these were milled and converted into firewood for our home in early 2005. Somewhere along the way we fell a little bit in love with the Chalet and decided to hang on to it. It certainly wasn’t ‘love at first sight‘ because the internal decor was simply goppingly ugly: all bright red synthetic carpet and brass veneer light fittings direct from the Tacky Shop! It was so bad that we seriously wondered if perhaps the previous owner had used the Chalet as a set for dodgy porn movies….
So, in mid-2005, we pretty much gutted the lounge, bathroom and bedrooms; ripped out all the ugly bits and pieces, repainted and recarpeted it; removed the upstairs bathroom (why did they need TWO bathrooms in a chalet this size?) and generally gave it a good old tidy-up.
In September 2005, we loaded the Chalet into Bookabach and since that time have alternated between some great long term tenants and overnight stays, with some equally great guests.
The Chalet is on a large section, the front portion is mown lawn, and the rear area is a mix of scrub and native bush. Guests are welcome to explore to their heart’s content. A new innovation this year has been ‘feed the animals’ not something we really intended for any but our grand-daughter but a number of guests expressed their interest in this so it is available as an ‘on request’ activity in the mornings and early evenings.
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