Harold Wright at his home in Springvale. Photo / Paul Brooks
Harold Wright at his home in Springvale. Photo / Paul Brooks
When Harold Wright ventures out, he will invariably meet people he knows.
Their respect and liking for him is obvious. There's always a hug for Harold.
Now 87, he is remembered as a good businessman and employer. He's the man who took the Riverside Tavern and Riverina Restaurant to success,then did the same with the Cossie Club catering. Not bad for a blacksmith.
"When the Cossie Club came to see me they had 1200 members. In just under a year it went up to 2500. The police made them close the membership because it was too many."
Harold started his working life at the age of 15 as a blacksmith at the Eastown Railway Workshops.
"For 20 years, making parts for steam engines. I've got a photo around here somewhere of the last steam engine that went puffing out of the workshops. Every year I'd put on a Christmas do in the blacksmiths' shop. There were about 35 of us."
Harold would do the cooking, a skill he learned from his mother and his grandfather who was head chef at De Bretts in Taupo, and which he honed during another phase of his life.
As an 18-year-old he went into the army under conscription.
"I had to go before the head man and he asked me what I wanted to do. I said, I'd like to be a chef. He said, a bloody blacksmith as a chef? I finished up in charge of the whole Officers' Mess."
Harold says they wanted him to stay on and make the army his career. But he had other plans, as it turned out.
"A mate of mine, also a blacksmith, George Griffin, was a part-time barman at the Riverside Tavern … the cook there died. Bryce Jones owned the place."
George suggested Harold take over in the kitchen, which he did, part-time.
"We'd only been going four weeks and Bryce offered us both a third share each in the whole place, with no money invested by us. He could see potential. That's how the Riverina started."
Everyone dined there and its reputation grew.
"When there was a big golf tournament at Belmont, they'd all come to my place for dinner."
One time they had a driving competition to get golf balls across the river … using a putter!
"Les Banks, the photographer, he just about lived at the Riverina.
"It became the busiest place in Whanganui. At lunchtime, if you didn't get there by 12 o'clock, you wouldn't get a seat. There'd be 200 for lunch."
The Riverina Special was a steak prepared a special way. Portions were big. A local farmer came in for his 80th birthday and ordered flounder. It was so big Harold suggested they get Wally Harding in to top dress it. [Wally Harding started Wanganui Aeroworks]
Harold was there for 12 years, bringing in record crowds. One night at the bistro they sold 701 meals!
The newspaper photo when Harold and Faye finished at the Riverina.
"To run a good restaurant you have to sell yourself to the public, so they come to see you as well as your food."
When he left in 1979 he thought he'd be taking it easy but Bill Simmonds and John Carson from the Cossie Club approached him and offered him and his wife Faye the lease of the kitchen.
Again he built the trade. "We always did between 320 and 350 meals on Friday and Saturday nights and 200 for lunch on Friday.
"Between me and my son Michael we had that for 28 years. Then he started the Brick House."
It was while he was still at the Cossie Club, another venture came up.
"Gwyn Crozier came to see me and said we're going to build a castle out of my old house.
So we built Liffiton Castle and bought the two houses next door."
Harold and Faye sold their home in Wanganui East and moved into one of the houses. Faye went to work on it, turning it into a home to be proud of.
Liffiton Castle became a Whanganui landmark and was the chosen caterer for Prince Edward's farewell from Collegiate.
Harold proved himself a good businessman and a man who could turn a business around and make it hugely profitable, or start one from scratch and make it successful.
Harold and Faye spent time at various homes around Whanganui, including a place on Brassey Rod and a farmlet with sheep and peacocks and his dog Kara. Faye died in 2016, leaving Harold and their two children, Gaylene and Michael.
He remembers a very different Whanganui and he has scores of anecdotes about the personalities, like him, who once peopled the town.
