No, it's not a drive through

A car came close to demolishing one of Northland's oldest hotels on Thursday night when it skittled all but two of the pillars holding up its first floor verandah.

The four-wheel-drive was heading south through Kawakawa around 11.30pm when it left the road and smashed through five of the seven steel pillars holding up the Star Hotel's verandah and a first floor room, leaving the balcony of the 1879 pub teetering precariously, supported only by two posts at the far end of the building. The vehicle might well have got them as well had it not been for a heavy concrete planter in front of the penultimate pillar.

Firefighters and publican Frank Gardiner scrambled to find a builder who erected temporary supports early on Friday morning. The rest of the building was undamaged, except where flying pillars smashed a window frame and a sign.

Eleanor Gardiner said about 10 people were in the pub, mostly in the pokies room, when it was hit. She was playing pool with her daughter from Wellington, who thought it was an earthquake.

"But I knew straight away someone had hit the building. The ladies in the pokies room jumped up; they thought they were going to be hit," she said.

Mrs Gardiner sent her husband outside while she called the police, who in turn alerted St John and the local fire brigade.

"It was a bit of a mess out there. The driver seemed a bit dazed.

"He didn't know what had happened," she said.

Hotel guests rushed downstairs while Mrs Gardiner made sure people kept off the verandah.

"It was a bit of a shock, but now it's an inconvenience more than anything. And it affects the look of a historic building," she added. Cracks had also appeared in upstairs ceilings.

Sergeant Nathan Davis (Kawakawa) said the driver and sole occupant of the vehicle, believed to be a man in his 50s who had been checked by St John medics but had not been hurt, had been processed for drink driving. Police were now awaiting the results of tests before deciding on charges. The manner of his driving was also being investigated.

Meanwhile, a Kawakawa resident who was woken by the crash said he saw the driver walking, nonchalantly if unsteadily, away from the wreckage.

It was obvious he was the driver because no one else was on the street at the time.

Kawakawa Chief Fire Officer Wayne Martin said the brigade found a local builder to erect temporary supports and kept people away until the building was stabilised. The concrete planter box probably stopped the car taking down all the pillars, and possibly the verandah itself, he added.