Waitomo Hotel: Photo: Archives New Zealand.
The grand old lady of Waitomo once hosted Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip, and is reputed to be haunted, but today Waitomo Caves Hotel is being used to accommodate transitional workers from Taharoa Ironsands.
Waitomo Caves Hotel was built in 1908.
Waitomo Caves Hotel in Waitomo village has been closed for a while, but recent comings and goings of tradespeople have prompted hope from residents that the hotel may be being prepared for tourists.
Residents say Taharoa Ironsands workers staying at the hotel have been drinking at the Waitomo Tavern.
The Wellesley Group, owned by Taharoa Ironsands managing director Wayne Coffey, is leasing the hotel from the owners the Tanetinorau Opatai Trust.
Coffey was not available for comment but his son, Brent, confirmed the iron sands company was using the hotel for transitional workers.
“We will say what we are doing with the hotel when we know what we are doing,” he said.
He would give no more detail.
A bus from the Waitemata Bus and Transport Co. Ltd outside the Waitomo Caves Hotel 1930. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 7-A11136
Built in 1908, the Victorian Gothic and Edwardian Baroque building hosted the Queen and Prince Philip on New Year’s Eve 1953.
Director Guillermo Del Toro stayed at the hotel while scouting locations for The Hobbit before he handed the reins to Sir Peter Jackson.
“I heard of a murder in a room in a hotel in New Zealand,” Del Toro said in an interview with Kjersti Flaa in 2015.
“It was a haunted hotel, and often when I travel, I stay in haunted hotels. I asked specially for that room, and I heard a murder in the middle of the room with nobody there.”
Del Toro heard a woman shrieking horrible blood-curdling shrieks for five minutes and a man sobbing and sighing with great regret for 10 minutes.
“We were the only people in the hotel. It was closed. Only eight people in the entire hotel.”
He tracked the noises to a vent that led to the cellar.
The Victorian wing of the hotel was built in 1908 as a government hostel. The Art Deco section seen here was added in 1928. The hostel became a hotel in 1954. Creative Commons
Headquarters for Visitors to the Waitomo Caves. By Archives New Zealand – commons.wikimedia.org
