End of an Era

Ross, Westland.
Back in the late 1800s Ross had a population exceeding 30,000 and more pubs than you could complete a pub crawl still standing.
In 1909, "The Honourable Roddy Nugget" was found in Jones Creek (see image), weighing in at 99 ounces. The NZ government bought it and presented it to King George V as a coronation gift. Subsequent enquires in the 1950s as to its whereabouts, discovered that it had been melted down to gild a royal tea service, but that this tea service could not now be located!
In 1947 Peter Gurr drove his Indian motorbike over to Ross to purchase the local garage. He was soon followed by his new wife Eileen. Three daughters followed, the first in 1950 - Chris, my wife.
In 1968, I first darkened the doorway of their relatively new home in Ross and was duly ushered to the divan in the lounge which I learned was to be my 'room', clearly visible and well away from the 'Gurr Girls'. The rest, as the saying goes, is history!
In September 2009 Peter breathed his last, and poor Eileen was brought over to Christchurch, soon to be put into a rest home, and subsequently into a dementia care unit.
The house was empty, the furniture sold or taken, and memories cherished. The house was put on the market to sell.
And so it did - eventually. Jim and I drove over last week to collect the remaining furniture, cleared out the cupboards, gave the place a thoroughly good clean as only two husbands of 'Gurr Girls' could do! The keys were handed over.
But before we left town we darkened the door of another famous Ross establishment, the Empire Hotel (or Top Pub as the locals knew it) - the Roddy Nugget is reputed to have been the door stop there at one point. Ah, if only the walls of that place could talk. We drank deep in honour of Peter and Eileen - icons of the West Coast was how the owner of the local gold mining operation described them at the bar).
Finally, before locking the door of #31 Sale Street, I went and lay down on that same divan 44 years after I first lay my head. There were some great memories, but now the soul had gone. It was just a house. An end of an era. I shed a tear as I drove out of town.