A new high-end Chinese restaurant is due to open next Saturday in a restored 1800s farmhouse at the fast-expanding $200 million-plus Central Otago hospitality hub, Ayrburn.
Chris Meehan, chief executive of NZX-listed Winton Land, which owns the hub outside Arrowtown, said the family home of William (Billy) and Elizabeth Paterson had been fully restored as a new fine dining restaurant.
The 50-seat Billy’s has six dining and bar areas and more than 130 original artworks, including by Karl Maughan, Max Gimblett, Ralph Hōtere and Pat Hanly.
Two lakes, the size of about two rugby fields, were dug 3.5m deep in front of the weatherboard home: a 1950sq m northern pond and an 8500sq m southern pond.
Those are for firefighting, to counter frost on Ayrburn’s vineyards and as focal points for weddings and shows like February’s Ayrburn Classic motoring festival.
Each lake has a jetty and one has an island for special events like weddings.
Meehan of Winton said construction work on the rundown, abandoned homestead took nearly two years.
“We essentially entirely rebuilt it,” he said. The homestead was found to have no foundations, its wood walls simply sitting directly on the ground.
Billy’s is a celebration of old and new, a nod to the past and a rich connection to the area’s history, particularly the gold rush and the Chinese, he said.
Electronic keypads control music, lighting, heating and cooling.
The Builders Queenstown and Diemarco Projects did the construction work on the farmhouse. Jessie Sutherland SA Studio did the architecture work and interior design was by Alexander & Co with staff from Winton Land, including creative lead Alex Watts.
A black tie opening gala event is planned on Thursday night with tickets costing $450 each.
Meehan said the Paterson family had also been invited to celebrate the opening and had an ongoing curiosity about Arburn’s expansion.
Areas within Billy’s are named the Sun Room, Flower Room, Reading Room, Vintners’ Room, Billy’s Bar and Drawing Room.
The rooms are decorated with trophy-mounted game and birds, specially commissioned furnishings and furniture, wall coverings and drapes made here and in Australia.
The Conservatory is an adjoining fully glazed 64-seat dining venue built beside Billy’s.
That has a tiled floor, fruiting lemon trees in tubs, red lampshades, fans, heaters and retractable awnings for summer.
Meehan said an artist worked on the building to give it an appropriately aged look.
A Victorian-style topiary knot garden was established outside, some plants 40 years old.
Low buxus hedging is in a snake design: another nod to the area’s link to Chinese gold miners.
Billy’s executive chef is Richard Highnam. Cocktails including Genzi Gardens, small plates of food including king prawns and tofu soup, dumplings, Peking duck, Nanjing-style braised pork hock, crayfish, mud crab and whole fish will be served.
The Patersons were one of the area’s founding families, their five-bedroom place having nine fireplaces. They were the first in the area to have electric lights and glass in windows, Meehan said.
Ayrburn was established by Scottish immigrant William Paterson, from West Kilbride, Ayrshire who brought the seed of a Wellingtonia, now a giant redwood in front of the house.
He arrived here via Australia in 1862 and was followed the following year by his wife and five of six children.
They initially lived in what is now the Burr Bar, named after the late Adrian Burr, then had the Victorian-style farm house built.
Ayrburn Farm was one of the first to be established in the Wakatipu Basin.
Meehan said kōura - native freshwater crayfish - were being introduced to the ponds. Plans are for children to catch them, then have them served on pizzas.
The Ministry for Primary Industries, Department of Conservation, Fish & Game and the Queensland Lakes District Council supported kōura being introduced to the ponds, Meehan said.
For Meehan, the opportunity is unique: “I’ll only get one piece of land this good in my lifetime.”
Winton Land’s Ayrburn
Anne Gibson has been the Herald‘s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas. She and Jason Dorday were hosted by Ayrburn.
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