$1 million wanted for Otira, including the pub

AMY GLASS

FOR SALE: Christine and Bill Hennah are looking for a buyer of the town of Otira, a package deal which includes the hotel and railway station among other buildings.

Ever daydream about owning your own village?

Look no further than Otira, a tiny West Coast town in the Southern Alps.

Otira's current owners, Bill and Christine Hennah, bought the township in 1998 after passing through and "feeling sorry for it".

Christine Hennah said the couple paid $80,000 for the hotel, school, fire station, town hall and 18 houses.

Twelve years later, the couple, now in their 60s, no longer have the energy to run the hotel while maintaining the building and the township.

They are asking $350,000 for the hotel, or $1 million to take the village as well.

Christine Hennah said the hotel and town would be ideal for a couple with lots of energy and ideas.

"We need someone to build it up again. There is a lot of potential and opportunity," she said.

The main difficulty the couple had faced was with the Westland District Council, which would not give resource consent for subdivision and development because of the risk of flooding or earthquakes, she said.

Bill Hennah said the Department of Conservation was not keen on the town's growth because Otira was in the middle of a national park.

Christine Hennah said the couple had enjoyed their Otira stint, although they wished they had not given residents six weeks rent in return for them painting their own homes.

"That was a bit naive of us. It didn't really work," she said.

The Otira Hotel, originally a Cobb & Co coach stop, has been on the same site since the 1860s.

The town has long been a base for railway and road workers, but many of the houses, which date back to the 1920s, have been moved to new locations on the West Coast.

Otira has about 40 people.

- © Fairfax NZ News