The decline started with the loss of one building.
"The whole thing worked around Williams and Kettle - everybody used it," he said.
"They had the grocery department, the china department where you could buy a wedding present, the hardware department and they had a grain and seed store. Everyone from Tikokino, Argyll, Otane, Elsthorpe and Omakere had to go through Waipawa, so they stopped and did their shopping.
"The worst decision that Williams and Kettle ever made was taking the branch out of Waipawa and into Waipukurau.
"The directors at the time had a lot to answer for - the demise of Waipawa."
The store's move wasn't a success for Williams and Kettle either. Competition from five other rural supply stores diluted its customer base.
Nearly all shops on the western side of Waipawa were removed to widen the highway. A replacement shopping centre was built behind the eastern shops, but the rot had set in.
Mr Butler said in retrospect the removal of the shops wasn't such a bad thing.
"If we had 30 shops on the eastern side now they would probably be covered in corrugated iron."
But now Waipawa "is on a roll". Key to its resurgence is all traffic drives through it, a lot more than neighbouring Waipukurau, which suffers a traffic bypass.
"If you drive from Tokoroa you now bypass Taupo, so now Waipawa is the first town you drive through.
"Other than Bay View it is the only place we can gas up and get a decent cup of coffee without turning off the main highway."
The Whyatt's started a furniture and giftware business in a two-storey building they have re-wired, re-plumbed and re-roofed.
"We sort of got the ball rolling," he said.
"People used to come to our shop and say they had never ever stopped at Waipawa - middle-aged people - who would say the only reason they stopped was to come to our shop. I've even had one woman who said she had never been in a secondhand shop.
"We have had several people who have come in and said, 'Oh my God, you would never have thought this would be in Waipawa'."
He cites the expanded petrol station as one reason for the resurgence. From its forecourt Country Traders looms large.
"It would be the best thing that has happened in Waipawa. There isn't a minute of the day when you don't have people in that bloody garage, so that has been a fantastic stopping place for people and then they see the shops.
"There are three cafes down the front, a beautician, a nice florist that has just opened in the last few weeks and a fantastic museum that is second to none - that's in the old BNZ Bank. That is fantastic what they have done in there."
A Westpac ATM machine echoes the former high-street banking presence and at Waiapu Kids Homebased, a business based on the highway, it uses a former bank vault as a storeroom. It is lined with tiny shelves that once housed video cassettes from its former life as a video library. It has also housed a jewellers, a clothing boutique and a mini golf business.
Like Calvin Whyatt, manager Erin Cotter cites Penny Lane Emporium, in the former Williams and Kettle building, as a retail attraction that has helped remake Waipawa a destination.
Divided into 12 retail areas and only open Thursday to Saturday (Sundays in Summer) it opened 15 months ago to great success.
It is the project of Lee Walker, who returned to New Zealand from England upon reaching retirement age. From Auckland originally, she bought a house in Waipawa to be close to her son in Otane, who now has The Common Room bar in Hastings, but she needed a project.
"It had been empty for about four years," she said.
"There was a secondhand furniture place before, a garden shop and the Salvation Army out the back, but they left about 12 years ago.
"It's an old building but has a lot of charm. I did a one-day Turkish bazaar first and that went really well and then I did a Christmas bazaar. People were saying to me, 'Come on, when are we doing another one?' It's quite a lot of work, the one-day things, so I said to the landlord I will take it on provided that you fix things and supply the paint.
"It was all in a bit of disrepair but the landlord is fabulous and he worked in with me and repaired windows, fixed the leaky roof and unblocked the drains."
One of the 12 retailers paying $40 to $80 a week is Don Melbourne. He makes leather belts and handbags.
"We used to do markets but it was too hard for us, I'm not well so we do this instead," his wife, who declined to be named, said.
"You wouldn't make a living out of it but it is good for us because we can get rid of stock that we have at home.
"Some of the shops are not manned and pay commission for what they sell. It's a goodwill thing - Lee gets the commission but that's all right, it's better than an empty shop.
"The more variety there is the more people you get. I think the nice atmosphere helps when it's open. We have fresh bread on Friday - Lee goes into town and gets it.
"In the corner there is the Dutch shop, she brings all her cheeses from Northwood. It's beautiful cheese - she has people lining up for it.
"The tea shop is new - cups of tea, scones and cream."
Summer was a great success and so are some of the retailers.
"The florist soon outgrew that space and she moved into a shop of her own, it's the same for the childrenswear around the corner. She was in here and she just took on more stock.
"It's a bit of a springboard for the younger ones that start off, until they get their wings."
The back of the building looks like a Western movie set. It is stage two of Lee's project. She is building Cactus Jack's, a live music venue in the former grain store.
Formerly housing old equipment from the supermarket next door - it had an informal peppercorn rental agreement - it has been transformed into the wild west, including a mock bordello, thanks to voluntary labour.
"Once people knew what we were doing they just gave us stuff. People are just brilliant once they have been."
Mark Drake has owned Kingfisher Gifts for seven years and Waipawa fish supplies for 21, starting when Waipawa was "pretty busy".
"Not as many people used to cruise up to Hastings - now there is so much to do in Hastings over the weekend."
He owns one of his buildings and said cheaper rents helped make businesses viable.
"It's definitely cheaper than Hastings. It seems to be the main problem in Hastings and Napier - central-city rents."
More and more motorists were stopping, but it was not about bricks and mortar.
"We have a really good museum and lots of other good shops. It has a good backbone and it sure is good to have all the little ones filled up, but I think we have better people and better service."
