Masterton District Licensing Committee refused at the end of last year to renew the licence for the Castlepoint\/Whakatiki Hotel, in Wairarapa, after the pub served intoxicated customers.<\/p>\n
The operators appealed and were allowed to run the pub over the Christmas holidays, but during that time, the pub was raided by police and the licence was permanently pulled. <\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/25c309bbaa22c29e0b36be32c2f38e12.jpg\")
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The pub sits on a 1ha site in Masterton and has been upgraded by the vendors. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
The pub is owned by former chef Ash Thomas and his friends Jason Osborne and Jason Le Grove. Thomas, who is now a real estate agent with Tremains, told OneRoof he didn’t agree with the committee’s decision, but accepted there was no fighting it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see it as a bit of a witch hunt regarding them coming after us to get us to lose our licence,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe weren\u2019t perfect. We did bend the rules a bit too far, and that\u2019s why we lost the licence.” <\/p>\n
Thomas, who has been tasked with selling the property, said the business had been doing well and the trio had loved being an important part of the community.<\/p>\n
Discover more:<\/p>\n
– Tony Alexander: Agents tell it straight – housing market is grinding to a halt<\/a><\/p>\n – Is a $90,000 green loan the cheapest way out of NZ’s fuel bill crisis?<\/a><\/p>\n – Queenstown\u2019s tiniest luxury home snapped up after agents bombarded<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt was going great. There was literally nothing wrong with the trade or anything like that. We put in a full commercial kitchen – all new stoves and an extraction unit. We did the back bar up, we bought a lot of new furniture and soft furnishings for the rooms.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a really good business, and we\u2019d put our heart and soul into it. But yeah, that\u2019s the way things go. You\u2019ve just got to take it on the chin and move on.\u201d <\/p>\n The property includes an eight-bedroom hotel with a guest lounge, six cabins, caravan and motorhome sites, and a secure lease with North Fuels supplying diesel to the wider community. <\/p>\n The pub was named as one of New Zealand\u2019s top country pubs in 2024. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n Thomas said two former pub employees, Celeste Blakesley and Amanda Aitken, had taken over the lease and applied for a new liquor licence. <\/p>\n \u201cHopefully [it will be granted] in about eight weeks. They\u2019ve had the licensing inspector go around and do the chat with them and the checks and everything.\u201d <\/p>\n However, Blakesley and Aitken were willing to step aside, Thomas said, if a buyer wanted to run the hospitality and tourism business as well as own the building. <\/p>\n \u201cYou could buy it now and let the lease run for three years with the current tenants. You’re still going to be getting the income from the lease. Or the tenants are willing to step out of the lease, and a new owner could take it over and run the whole thing themselves. It gives you some good options.\u201d <\/p>\n There has been a pub on the site since around 1872. However, the original building burned down in the 1920s and was rebuilt. In 2024, the hotel was named one of New Zealand’s top country pubs<\/a> by celebrated hospitality reviewer Peter Janssen. <\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/fb46491c7aca4f6a4c0e874fc68feca6.jpg\")
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