SECRET SPACE: Demolition worker Mark Purdon checks out the cellar discovered under the floorboards of the old Kaikohe Hotel. PHOTO/DEBBIE BEADLE
SECRET SPACE: Demolition worker Mark Purdon checks out the cellar discovered under the floorboards of the old Kaikohe Hotel. PHOTO/DEBBIE BEADLE
Demolition workers at the old Kaikohe Hotel have discovered a long-forgotten cellar under the floorboards - but hopes of finding a stash of vintage whisky have been dashed.
Rintoul Civil is dismantling what was once one of Northland's largest and grandest hotels. All that remains now is the shell andfloor of the original 1894 building.
While removing the restaurant floor workers found a cellar also thought to date back 120 years. The find sparked keen interest in case the cellar contained an old bottle of rum or a barrel of whisky.
All they found, however, was a penny, an old shoe, part of a whisky barrel and a pile of bricks used to fill in the hole where the stairs used to be.
The cellar walls are made of plaster with walls sloping on a 15-degree angle. It was thought the cellar would have been outside when the pub was first built, accessed via a bolted trapdoor.
