The team at the Harbour View Hotel will be hopping to it early on Easter Sunday to get hundreds of eggs hidden out in the garden bar before an expected multitude of children come to hunt them down.
“No way we are running out of eggs,” says publican Fiona Gates, revealing she has 13 kilos of chocolate goodies on order for the long weekend. “There are probably 1000 eggs to hide,” she laughs.
The Easter egg hunt will take staff about four hours to set up in the morning, Fiona told the Chronicle, and the fact it’ll be over in minutes doesn’t bother her in the least. If it’s anything like the past two hunts it will be “absolute chaos … mayhem,” she says, but delightful nevertheless.
This year there’ll be two hunts – one at 11am for the little ones aged five, six and seven; and the other at 11.30 for eight, nine and ten year olds. The entry fee is $4 per child, each of whom receives a gift bag containing two mini-eggs to give them a head start.
The Easter bunny will also make an appearance, and the team – including herself – will be dressed up for the occasion.
It’s “quirky” for a pub to put on such an eggstravaganza, she admits, “but I want to do something for the kids”. Fiona envisages them growing up and fondly remembering the annual Easter egg hunt downtown in Raglan. It’s all about creating memories, she adds.
Fiona’s expecting this year’s Easter egg hunt to be even bigger and better than before. The eggstravaganza has grown exponentially, she says, going from about 40 kids entering first time round to 80 last year. “We would love to see 100 kids this year.”
To give the event something of a festival atmosphere there’ll be a bouncy castle taking up part of the car park at the garden bar’s back entrance, with face painting, live music and Easter raffles adding to the activities inside.
The modest entry fees – along with gold coin donations for the activities – will go to the local Lions Club and Plunket, she points out, while families can take advantage of the hotel’s $20 pizza special.
The Harbour View is a family-friendly venue, Fiona insists.The historic pub would’ve been the life and soul of this community back in the day, she adds, and since taking over two years ago she’s strived to recreate that kind of environment.
With the likes of weekly trivia nights, chess, and having big bands playing more regularly, the “old girl”, as Fiona fondly calls the pub, has certainly livened up.
On Easter Saturday for example the Harbour View will be hosting Auckland acoustic band ‘White Chapel Jak’, which she describes as the single biggest gig that current management has brought to the hotel. She says the six-piece covers band – which has played with the Auckland Symphony Orchestra – has hardly “touched the Waikato” apart from making one appearance at Soundsplash.
Other Easter Weekend gigs around town include Wellington band ‘Crash Bandihoot’ kicking off the weekend early at The Yard Music Cafe & Bar on the Thursday night and The Last Suxpper Tour with HOICK, Two Skinner and Threat.Meet.Protocol at the YOT Club on the Saturday evening.
A crowd-funded documentary, ‘The Trust Fall: Julian Assange’, screens at Raglan Old School Arts Centre on Saturday March 30 at 4.45pm (and is repeated on Sunday at 7.15pm); followed by a New Zealand Film Commission movie, ‘The Convert’, at 7.30pm.
And ‘Ordinary Angels’ screens at the Old School on Easter Sunday at 4.30pm.
Back in Bow St the Raglan Art Easter Show runs all weekend at the Town Hall supper room.
by Edith Symes
