One of New Zealand’s most peaceful and endearingly named towns will next year lose its sole remaining coal mine. As Shayne Currie discovers, however, Nightcaps locals are optimistic, partly buoyed by the potential of a small village that is luring northerners south.
“No one’s rich in Nightcaps,” reckons Tony Philpott, one of the leading figures in the small community. “But everyone’s happy.”
The tiny Southland town with just over 300 people is one of our southernmost villages – some 70km northwest of Invercargill in the shadow of the Takitimu Mountains.
Its endearing name originates, apparently, from the snow-peaked “Takis”.
“Don’t ask me how [the name’s] come about,” says former coalminer Rommy Hunt, 73, who’s lived in Nightcaps all his life.
“There are that many stories; they reckon it was when the snow was on the hills and it looked like a nightcap on your head – they weren’t completely covered. That’s one of the theories.”
Life in the town is positively idyllic and with house prices that might just extend past $400,000 - sometimes you’ll pick up a do-up cottage for far less - it’s drawing new residents from the likes of Auckland and other northern spots.
“It’s a good lifestyle here,” says Hunt.
“It’s nice and peaceful. You haven’t got traffic lights and traffic jams, and you’re only an hour to Invercargill and a couple of hours to Queenstown. Te Anau is only an hour. [For] anyone who loves hunting and fishing, you’ve got everything here.”
Nightcaps and nearby Ohai have a rich coal-mining history, from the boom times of the 1880s to lean periods during the wars, and to more bustling times in the latter 20th century.
Philpott recalls about 600 workers at several mines in Ohai and Nightcaps when he began working at the Morley Mine in 1984. “The place was just pinging, the towns were full of young people on good wages – extremely vibrant.”
Nightcaps is still a happy place, says Philpott – well supported by local dairy farmers, and with committed volunteer and sports groups.
However, as mist descended on the Takitimu Mountains yesterday – cloaking the snow-capped peaks – a somewhat darker, figurative cloud is hovering over the town.
The sole-remaining coal mine at Nightcaps, operated by Bathurst Resources, is set to close next year. It has employed up to 50 people in recent years, and locals are bracing for an inevitable jolt when miners leave the area for possibly the final time.
But this town has a rich and resilient history - and certainly those I spoke to yesterday on the Great NZ Road Trip were optimistic the town would survive.
They’ve been through tougher periods with mines closing.
While some houses sold for a few hundred dollars – or even reportedly $1 – some decades ago, these days the property market is positively booming.
“The prices are creeping up – that’s a good thing,” says Philpott. “You can’t get a $40,000 house here any more.”
Prices are generally anywhere between $300,000 and $400,000.
“There’s a few more houses on the market at the moment than there’s ever been. There’s probably three houses on the market, and normally there would only be one, if that.
“Not many houses come on the market, to be fair.”
Philpott says more and more people are moving in from other regions, including those from up north. He thinks about 20% of the population has shifted from elsewhere.
While Nightcaps still boasts two schools – a catchment for the surrounding areas and farms – the main street is a far cry from the town’s heyday.
There’s one shop and a pub – the art deco Nightcaps Hotel is the biggest landmark in these parts.
“There used to be two butcher shops, two grocery shops, two dairies, a bakery, Post Office, two banks, a draper,” says Hunt.
While they’re long gone, Hunt tells of a community that continues to endure. “We all meet at the pub and have a beer and a yarn.”
A spirit thrives in Nightcaps, agrees Philpott, who runs Nightcaps Contracting. He’s also the chair of the community board, a volunteer fire officer - he’s been in the brigade for the last 34 years with stints as both fire chief and deputy - and this year he was made a life member of the local rugby club.
He highlights how more than $200,000 was raised to help a young local mum fight breast cancer last year. She is back on her feet, having even run a marathon.
Philpott says Nightcaps is special.
“My wife and I owned a very nice place in Kelvin Heights [in Queenstown], and we actually got sick of going up there, to be honest with you. We’re both just happy being in Nightcaps –both of us are happy to live here.
“When I’m not doing stuff for the rugby club, I’m doing it for the fire brigade, or I’m around at the school. It just keeps you busy, and I dare say when I retire, they’ll probably still want me to do jobs.”
Philpott visits Auckland regularly, for work and family reasons.
“Down here is much more buoyant than Auckland. You struggle to get a builder down here – all the tradies are busy. In Auckland, you can get them as quickly as you want them.”
Rommy Hunt worked in the coal mines at nearby Ohai.
“It was the best job I ever had ... just the camaraderie between the men. You’re all friends at work, but when it came to Saturday rugby, you were the biggest enemies ... It was all in good fun.
“[There were] plenty of hangovers, I can tell you that. It was great. I loved it out there. The hours were good and the money was good – you had to work for your money; it wasn’t easy work at times.”
Hunt says he wouldn’t know a quarter of the 300 or so people now - “strangers from up north, buying cheaper houses down here. It’s completely changed”.
Aucklanders were selling up, buying in Nightcaps and enjoying money in the bank, “and beautiful scenery too, looking at the Takis”.
The closure of the mine next year will have an impact, he says, even though there are only a few locals working there.
“It’s a shame to see it close – there’s still a lot of coal out there but with Clandeboye, their main customer, converting to power or whatever, the coal’s just not wanted. They’re all trying to get out of fossil fuels.
“But the old town still keeps ticking over.”
Nightcaps publican Selena Jukes talks of the Te Araroa trail walkers who come to town, including the southbound walkers nearing the end of their long hike from Cape Rēinga. Nightcaps is a refuge before the daunting mud trails of the Longwood Forest.
The pub has seven rooms and Jukes believes Nightcaps has an opportunity to build itself as a visitor destination.
“We see a lot of New Zealanders and foreigners come through here – it’s a season, though. We all know the patterns – it’s quiet at the moment, not a lot of people like to go out.”
But she believes visitor numbers can build.
“It’s a growing industry – it’s inspiring to see. We live in raw beauty.
“When they [talk about] the wonders of the world,” says Jukes of the Takitimu Mountains, “that’s one of them – they’re stunning. I’m jealous when those Te Araroa walkers come off. I see it from afar, but they’ve walked it”.
She hopes a cycle trail might replace the now disused local rail line, much like the Central Otago rail trail.
One of the recent guests at the pub had just bought a house at nearby Ohai. He had been lured by the cheaper lifestyle, with access to walking tracks, hunting and fishing.
“He spent the last week mingling with the locals - not everyone is social like that.”
Bev Evans, 82, has also been in Nightcaps all her life, including in her current home for some 50 years. She is a Nightcaps stalwart, having served on the community board and in local government for three decades.
She and her late husband Brian bought the three-bedroom cottage on a large section for $2000.
“That was a lot back then; you could buy a house around here for less than that.”
She and her husband have restored it to a beautiful family home.
Evans tells of “happy, happy” memories growing up in Nightcaps as a child before becoming a mum herself.
“It was just so great,” she says, sitting in her living room while serving home-made scones and pikelets.
“It was pretty tough just after the war, but as time went on, the town was more like one big family.”
Evans said on the whole, the community spirit was still present. “It needs a bit of welding – I’m not going to say building.”
She had seen a lot of change in the town, “not always for the good, but 90% of it is.
“I’m always hopeful that one of these days, someone might come in and start another business up here”, she says, scanning the main street from her sofa.
The low cloud yesterday meant that the Takitimu Mountains weren’t visible from Nightcaps. Evans says she feels the cold more now.
“I love the snow on the Takis, but that’s as far as I want to see it.”
Tony Philpott, meanwhile, says the town’s spirit endures.
“Even when I retire, I’ll still live at Nightcaps,” he says.
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor.