On September 1, recently arrived Cardrona Valley resident Margaret Bowes will open the Cardrona Valley general store on the site of the old Benny's cafe and directly opposite the original Cardrona general store building on the Crown Range Rd.
The former Aucklander admits she has never run a shop before but after talking to locals, seeing how busy the pub was and counting the number of cars driven past her front door in the summer, she decided her site would make a great general store.
''I love the Cardrona Valley - it's so beautiful. I love the building and you've got to find something to do here because there are not a lot of jobs around.''
The shop will be open from 7am to 7pm and sell many basic food items as well as newspapers, coffee and takeaway food.
It would also showcase local produce and operate as an off-licence.
Ms Bowes moved to Wanaka in 2015 to be near her daughter Isabella, who was studying at Mount Aspiring College, and in December she moved to Cardrona Valley.
She said she was inspired to open the first shop in the village in nearly 70 years by her experience up north.
''We used to have a bach on the edge of Lake Rotoiti, near Rotorua, and when the Okere Falls Store opened it changed our lives: you could suddenly get everything, from basics to treats. It was fantastic.''
Cardrona Residents and Ratepayers Association chairman Blyth Adams said the nucleus of 38 to 40 permanent residents were looking forward to the shop opening and seasonal residents and holidaymakers would welcome a general store in the village.
He said it would become ''another great reason to stop in the valley''.
At the height of the Cardrona gold rush in the 1870s, the town is estimated to have had a population of between 3000 and 4000, with four hotels, three European stores, four Chinese stores, four butchers and a post office, bakery, blacksmith, bank, school, police headquarters and jail.
Ms Bowes said the general store was a modern new shop that was not in competition with the historic Cardrona Hotel, but would ''complement it''.
