An historically significant Karāpiro building has been given a new lease of life by a Waipā sporting family.
Family project: Back, from left Shem and Emerson Rodger, 5, Whitney Macky, Romee Rodger, 2. Front, Robin Aylett, left and Mike Rodger. Photo: Supplied.
Olympic rower and rowing coach Mike Rodger, wife Robin Aylett, son Shem Rodger – a former professional cyclist – and his fiancée Whitney Macky from Te Awamutu have refashioned a building which serviced a bustling dam construction community in the 1940s.
It closed as a bar and restaurant complex more than five years ago and when the Ariki St property went up for tender in 2021, the family snapped it up for $1.2 million with all the restaurant chattels included.
“Shem, Robin and Mike have lived in Karāpiro forever, we’ve always thought this was a cool building. We walked inside and said: ‘oh this is epic’,” said Whitney.
The family decided high-end accommodation was the perfect solution for the building and have spent on sleeping, bathroom, laundry, dining and kitchen facilities. Mike, an upholsterer, did up the furniture left behind – such as the large wrap around couch and the “ugly leather tub chairs” which now provide both trendy and functional seating.
Whitney Macky inside the dining and lounge area of Ariki Lake House with its reupholstered furniture. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
Now named the Ariki Lake House, it is a 32-bed facility for large sporting groups – forward bookings for events like the Maadi rowing or cycling at the Velodrome have been taken by schools and clubs – and corporates.
The dining area features high-stud, exposed beams supporting wood roof trusses, and polished wooden floors. Included in the beams is Entebbe, the training boat used for the 1977 New Zealand world champs coxless four crew of Mike’s brother David, Des Lock, David Lindstrom and Ivan Sutherland.
It was named Entebbe after the drama at Entebbe International Airport in Uganda when Israelis and the Air France crew were held hostage.
This photo of the worker accommodation which existed before the lake was flooded, hangs among other historic photos in Ariki Lake House. Photo: Supplied.
It was built in 1976 by boat builder Bob Stiles in Christchurch and is one of the few remaining examples of the craftmanship needed before composite materials were introduced in 1978.
The 1131 sq m property – with 75m of front deck seating with views of the dam, Lake Karāpiro and Maungatautari in the distance – comes with an upstairs self-contained 95sq m two-bedroom flat which Shem, Whitney and their two daughters Emerson, 5, and Romee, 2, lived in during refurbishment.
Also included in the chattels was a concrete vault which has been converted into a kitchen. Inside this is a safe where dynamite was stored when workers were building the Karāpiro Dam.
Macky was brought up in Te Awamutu, went to Te Awamutu College and then transferred to St Peter’s School in Cambridge for her final two years of school.
Her background is in hospitality, working on super boats in Monaco, and then in New York and Melbourne before moving to Auckland to a sales’ role where she met Shem. The two had briefly known each other in Te Awamutu when Whitney’s father cycled with Shem.
The couple moved back to Waipā five years ago when their oldest daughter was born and now live in Cambridge.
Whitney Macky on the deck of the Ariki Lake House with its views of the lake and Maungatautari in the background. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
