Bush Inn - Wigram Officers Mess

[Dave Homewood]

Two years ago I read that during the days of the NZPAF and prewar RNZAF at Wigram, there was no officer's mess on base. However the well known and prominent pub at Riccarton, the Bush Inn acted as the mess. Officers lived upstairs, and used the bar and kitchen facilities.

Later during the war the courses that passed out with their Wings from Wigram used the Bush Inn as their place to celebrate, and the RNZAF Museum has some fascianting large sheets of paper signed y hundreds of pilots who went through the bar during these parties, etc.

So it was a significant bar to the RNZAF's history. No doubt the place remained popular with airmen after the war, being just a few kilometres from the base.

I had been past the Bush Inn many many times when I lived in Christchurch but had never been inside. Anyway, when I was back in Chch in April I decided to make the pilgrimage and go for a drink in Wigram's old mess.

Here is a photo of the old pub. Arriving there filled me with hope that maybe there'd be some photos on the wall, or other reminders, or perhaps even some old airmen there in their 80's who could spin a yarn or two.



I am sad to report on entering it was possibly the biggest disappointment I'd had in years. It was a seriously dull pub. Most of it has been turned into a Cobb and Co restaurant. Then there's a TAB (always a bad sign in a pub!). And finally on the eastern end a bar, which was seriously dank, and filled with total losers of life.

The only noise apart from bloody horse racing on the TV were the clanking of the living dead pushing their dole money into pokey machines. I quickly swigged down a Canterbury Draught, thinking about what had gone before on those hallowed premises, and wondering if this is what those poor blighters had fought for.

Sorry these snaps aren't too good, the setting sun was upsetting the camera

[corsair67]

Ah, so you've had an introduction to the "Sad Bastard's Bar" then Dave? ;-)

I must admit that I felt the same the first time I went there too: there's more history on the outside of the building than on the inside nowadays.

One day when I'm rich, I'll buy the Bush Inn and turn it into an aviation themed hotel to link it to its past with Wigram.

There'll be a tail from a Harvard sticking out of the roof to add some character to the place too!

[Dave Homewood]

It certainly could do well with tourists as an aviation themed hotel and pub, being so close to Wigram. It's a shame the owners have no imagination.