thousands of businesses are closing up shop<\/a>.<\/p>\nHe attributed that success to his “grandma’s house” approach as a publican – providing hearty meals over bar snacks, and getting to know his patrons.<\/p>\n
“You look after your people, your people look after you,” he said.<\/p>\n
The Kumar’s story mirrors those of rural publicans across Aotearoa, according to Peter Janssen who authored New Zealand Pubs. The book recounts his journey through 170 historic New Zealand pubs.<\/p>\n
“I like the story of the pubs, and I like what they’ve meant to New Zealand over the last 150 years,” he told Country Life.<\/p>\n
At the heart of pubs that had survived over the decades were social, outgoing publicans, he said.<\/p>\n
“You’ve got to have a sit and have a chat to that boring man sitting there on his own having a beer; you’re the heart of the community.”<\/p>\n
![\"Peter](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4JGPOMS_Untitled_design_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Peter Janssen, author of “New Zealand Pubs: 170 Classic Pubs to Visit.”<\/p>\n
Supplied<\/p>\n
While such pubs have always been watering holes for rural communities, the clientele have changed in the last few decades – as have their demands.<\/p>\n
“The traditional image of the pub is, you know, a couple of old blokes sitting around a jug of beer,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Now, young people don’t want to do that. And actually, most people, older people don’t want to do that anyway.<\/p>\n
“And the pubs that were surviving on that sort of trend and tradition have not survived.”<\/p>\n
The pubs who have survived have broadened their drink and food offerings – like the Rotherham Hotel in North Canterbury.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4JI5GHD_Country_life_pubs_Rotheram_hotel_1_JPG.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
The Rotherham Hotel building was built in the 1930s, replacing the original building from 1878 which burned down.<\/p>\n
RNZ\/Anisha Satya<\/p>\n
Owner Keith Fenwick, locally “Kiwi Keith”, said food makes up about half of its business these days.<\/p>\n
“Years ago it was beer, it was about 90 percent … it was beer for breakfast, dinner, and tea.<\/p>\n
“Beer consumption has just dropped right away, especially during the day.”<\/p>\n
The hotel now operates as a cafe during the daytime, with offerings like burgers, coffees, ice cream, and homemade soup.<\/p>\n
![\"Hotel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4JI5I19_Country_life_pubs_Rotheram_hotel_5_JPG.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Hotel owner Keith Fenwick with weekend bar maid Karen Keith.<\/p>\n
RNZ\/Anisha Satya<\/p>\n
For over 40 years, Fenwick has lived and worked in the hotel with the help of his wife, Moira.<\/p>\n
Between cleaning rooms and serving patrons, he finds time to get out among the plants – he’s a market gardener by trade.<\/p>\n
He’d hoped to find more time for the garden in 2017, when he first put the hotel up for sale – but 10 years on, it’s still on the market.<\/p>\n
There are peak busy periods – like the Amuri A & P show in March, and the North Canterbury Hunting Competition in July – but managing quiet periods and increased costs is a juggling act.<\/p>\n
It’s not easy, Fenwick said, but it was a rewarding job for those suited to the role of a publican.<\/p>\n
“It is a good business; we’ll hang in there till something happens.”<\/p>\n
Janssen said it’s often the publican that makes or breaks a country pub’s success.<\/p>\n
“You’ve got to be calm, you’ve got to be organised, and you’ve got to like people; It’s a great lifestyle if you’re really keen.<\/p>\n
“There’s one called the Silver Stream Hotel in Kimbell, near Fairlie, where a young couple took it over and just turned it around.<\/p>\n
“It’s a fantastic pub, but that was a deliberate choice about a lifestyle they wanted to lead.”<\/p>\n
Donna Hall and Jim McDougall of the Strath Taieri Hotel made that same choice last year, taking on a pub for the sake of its community.<\/p>\n
![\"Donna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4JLQUIZ_Country_Life_Stath_Tairei_Hotel_6_JPG.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Donna Hall and Jim McDougall acquired the Strath Taieri Hotel outright in August 2025.<\/p>\n
RNZ\/Anisha Satya<\/p>\n
After sitting on the market for a while, and failing to renew its liquor licence, the pub closed for five weeks in 2025.<\/p>\n
Locals approached McDougall, who’d run pubs in his past and was “born and bred in Middlemarch”, to give this one a second life.<\/p>\n
“It was important to him for the community … if the pub closed there was not much chance of something opening anytime soon, if at all, that could replace the [hotel],” Hall told Country Life.<\/p>\n
“A commitment that Jim and I made when we bought the pub [was] that we’d be open every day, and that we would have longer hours and we’d be consistent.<\/p>\n
“Which often means the staff don’t have a lot to do, but we want to make it a place that people know they can come and and get a meal any time of the day.”<\/p>\n
Situated in hill country an hour from Dunedin, the hotel is a gathering spot for remote farming families, contract shearers and the local Young Farmers club.<\/p>\n
![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4JLQVZ1_Country_Life_Stath_Tairei_Hotel_1_JPG.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
This is the pub of choice for Strath Taieri’s young farmers.<\/p>\n
RNZ\/Anisha Satya<\/p>\n
“We try and support as many community groups as we can through the pub, through sponsorship, you know, and that’s pretty special,” Hall said.<\/p>\n
What comes around goes around – when rural publicans support their community, that community will support them back, Janssen said.<\/p>\n
“If you’ve got people who are outgoing and have a sense of community, they will attract people to the pub.”<\/p>\n
Janssen said while the nature of country pubs may have changed – food over beer and families alongside mates – their role in uniting communities remains the same.<\/p>\n
“They are much more community minded, they’re serving a better range of drinks, they’re serving a good range of food. They’re just much nicer places to be.<\/p>\n
“If you’ve got a good country pub and you live in the countryside, support it, because you don’t know what you’ve lost till it’s gone.”<\/p>\n
![\"Donna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4JLQUH0_Country_Life_Stath_Tairei_Hotel_4_JPG.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Donna Hall and Jim McDougall outside their pub, the Strath Taieri Hotel.<\/p>\n
RNZ\/Anisha Satya<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What does it take to run a pub in New Zealand’s rural towns? Above all else, you need…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-632938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Darfield](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4JH2K48_IMG_7473_JPG.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n