Where three Highways meet
March 23, 2009
Tirau
Originally it was called Oxford but New Zealand was growing so quickly you had to be fast to grab the best names and when the Registry noted there was already an Oxford in the South Island this one had to look to the Maori name, Tirau.
If you stop for the night at the hotel on top of the hill you will note that it is called the Oxford Hotel and you will be able to share your little piece of trivia with those sitting with you at the dining table.
Recently Tirau has undergone a revitalisation of it's shopping center by opening a number of antique stores. Over the past few years some of these have closed with new specialty stores opening in their place.
Baaa!!
It is not just it's location that makes Tirau a good place to stop and take a break. The town is seen as a destination in it's own right for day trippers wanting to go somewhere interesting to shop, stroll, enjoy morning or afternoon tea, or as my friend and I did, dine.
The most obvious thing you will note as you enter Tirau is that the whole place seems full of corrugated iron characters, the most well known of these being the huge sheep laying piecefully in the grass.
This was one of the first of the creations and was soon joined by the District Council's dog, which houses the information center and the public toilets.
Tirau is worth a stop and look.
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Tirau's taste of English
Agnes and I saw this place across the Main Road as we walked up the hill through Tirau. It looked like a good prospect for dinner when we were to make our way down later.
The building is set a little back from the street allowing for plenty of parking and for the sun to bathe the bar and surrounding decking in it's light and warmth.
Out by the steps from the carpark sits a blackboard sign and the printed menu. It was the usual pub/restaurant food that NZers expect to find and the prices seemed to be what I expected.
Also mentioned was Thursday's Quizz night and Friday's Poker night.
We entered the empty bar, which was set up like an English pub. The bar maid was sitting at one of the tables and jumped up to greet us with a smile and a very English accent when she spoke. We asked for a menu and sat at the same table in the corner where the sun seemed to fill the seating.
The first thing I noticed was that there were several flies also enjoying the sunlight steaming through the windows.
We went through the menu and I went for the fish and chips whilst Agnes had the fish of the day. Both were very good in size and I enjoyed mine as much as Agnes told me she enjoyed hers. We washed the meals down with a Montieths Lemon and Lime, tap beer -perfect with the fish!
It would have been a perfect meal except we spent as much time eating and drinking as we did waving the flies off our plates, our food, our glasses, our table and ourselves. Bit of a shame really.
The building is set a little back from the street allowing for plenty of parking and for the sun to bathe the bar and surrounding decking in it's light and warmth.
Out by the steps from the carpark sits a blackboard sign and the printed menu. It was the usual pub/restaurant food that NZers expect to find and the prices seemed to be what I expected.
Also mentioned was Thursday's Quizz night and Friday's Poker night.
We entered the empty bar, which was set up like an English pub. The bar maid was sitting at one of the tables and jumped up to greet us with a smile and a very English accent when she spoke. We asked for a menu and sat at the same table in the corner where the sun seemed to fill the seating.
The first thing I noticed was that there were several flies also enjoying the sunlight steaming through the windows.
We went through the menu and I went for the fish and chips whilst Agnes had the fish of the day. Both were very good in size and I enjoyed mine as much as Agnes told me she enjoyed hers. We washed the meals down with a Montieths Lemon and Lime, tap beer -perfect with the fish!
It would have been a perfect meal except we spent as much time eating and drinking as we did waving the flies off our plates, our food, our glasses, our table and ourselves. Bit of a shame really.
The Settlers Inn
The usual NZ fare
