Residents of Franklin Road in Ponsonby have been given a helping hand to make the Rob Roy Hotel glow like a Christmas beacon.
The historic hotel sits at the bottom of their road and will be wrapped in plastic to make it weatherproof while the roof is replaced over thenext six weeks.
Locals seized on the wrapping - which is due to happen this weekend - as an opportunity to enhance their community's tradition of illuminating their properties with Christmas lights.
They have received funding from the Waitemata Local Board and manpower from the Victoria Park Tunnel project to make the pub glow.
The Rob Roy was built in 1886 and marks the original foreshore of Freemans Bay. It was moved 40 metres up Franklin Road and back, to make way for the Victoria Park tunnel. The building's interior is being refurbished, ready for tenanting next year.
It is one of only a handful of 19th Century waterfront pubs left in Auckland.
