a little bit of history…
The motels have been in the Johnston family for the past 50 plus years since they arrived in Haast in January 1967. When Nicola’s parents (and 5 children) moved to Haast to run the original business there was only a service station, general store and a guest house with a dining room, Haast was a truly remote frontier town. The tiny road-working settlement here at Haast Beach was the only “town” in those days, before part of the town was moved to the current location of the Haast Township on SH6 in the late 1970’s.
Back then the local economy consisted mainly of farming, wild venison recovery and processing, commercial fishing, timber milling, and of course white baiting.
Isolated by a rugged mountain range, wild weather and erratic road access, this narrow stretch of the West Coast really was the ‘middle of nowhere’.
The final challenging section of road linking Haast with the rest of the West Coast was completed in 1967. The road from Wanaka to Haast via the Haast Pass was established in 1966.
The area has undergone significant changes over the years and while Haast is still well known for beef cattle and famous for its whitebait, there is now a greater focus on wilderness conservation and tourism.