Moutere Inn in the old town of Sarau (now Upper Moutere). This is the oldest pub in New Zealand ie that is still in its original old building.
Cordt Bensemann founded Upper Moutere and built an original two storied old house in 1850. A second wing was swiftly added as living quarters for the Bensemann family and by 1857 a structure still clearly recognisable as the Moutere Inn was in place.
As the present day Inn's website www.moutereinn.co.nz says, 'Life moved slowly in the Moutere Valley, electricity and telephone lines didn’t arrive until the late 1950s and so the commercial pressures that saw other historic pubs demolished didn’t affect the Inn leaving it largely untouched.'
The old Seibolth 'Bush Pub' which is still standing (just) at Neudorf hasn't stood the test of time quite as well as Bensemann premises.
Like the Moutere Inn, this was on the gold rush route to the Baton and Wangapeka Rivers and proprietor Franz Seibolth took out a 'bush licence' in 1868 to serve travellers (anyone who walked more than 3 miles) between 6am and 10pm except Sundays.
Early hop-kiln at Neudorf (still standing) near the above old pub built in the Fachwerk or half-timbered style common also in the Bensemann ancestral area of Niedersachsen. The Nelson settlers brewed their own beer in the 19th Century. Unlicensed liquor was thought to have been served in the Seibolth a year or two before the licence! The land was occupied by German immigrants Frederick Ewers, Franz Schwass and Frederick Brunning and families before the pub was built.
