The oldest licence in Hawke's Bay
175 years of pouring, in four chapters.
James McKain's accommodation house on the Western Spit is granted its bush licence — gazetted in the New Munster Gazette, 22 August 1851. The pub you're standing in traces straight back to it.
Known in its time as the Ahuriri, The Ferry and Ferryman's — serving travellers crossing the inner harbour, back when the ferry was the only way over.
Fire takes the Ferry Hotel at the Spit bridge. After a long court battle saves the licence, a new hotel rises at Meeanee Quay and Embankment Road: the Westshore Beach Inn.
Still the local. Pub, bistro, garden bar and fifteen studios — 175 years young, and the beach is still just across the road.
The spring behind the pub
Long before the pub, the traveller Mahu Tapoanui rested here at Rangitira. His dog scratched at the earth until a spring rose, and in it appeared the fish Te Tangahangaha — giving the spot its name, Ruatangahangaha. A waterhole stood behind the hotel site well into the 1900s.
Through the years
drop archive scans below — the back page of the bistro menu PDF is full of them