There is no particular order in which the two Historic Horse Trough sites should be visited. Parking is available directly by the Old Taupo Rd Historic Horse Troughs and about 100m South of the Ranolf St Historic Horse Troughs. Buses are also available from Arawa St to each of the Historic Horse Trough sites.
The Ranolf St Historic Horse Troughs were moved to their current site from the nearby Lake Rd and Ranolf St intersection when this was 4-laned in 2011. The troughs* are alleged to have originally been part of the "Robertson's Stables", which were conveniently located near the immensely popular "Palace" Hotel which was originally built, circa. 1880, on the opposite side of the Lake Rd and Ranolf St intersection. The "Palace" was the third hotel in the vicinity of Ohinemutu, the others established about 1875, all catering to the burgeoning tourist market, enroute to Rotomahana and the Pink & White Terraces. The "Palace" was later moved to the corner of Arawa and Tutanekai St's, once the township area had been finally determined.
* Information from the Historical Society states that the original troughs at Ohinemutu were made of wood.
The Old Taupo Rd Historic Horse Troughs, near Pererika St, are probably at, or near, their original location and were used to water stock and horses as they travelled along Old Taupo Rd, often to the Ngongotaha Saleyards (now the site of the NZMCA's private campground). The troughs are referenced in "Pumiceland Pioneers", (a book detailing the history of the early European settlement of Aotearoa, as experienced by the Martin and Ford families) as still being in use in 1929.
The final location of this cache is near the site of "Robertson's Stables", which took up most, if not all, of the city block bounded by Hinemoa and Tutanekai St's.
Edwin Robertson is purported to have commenced his freight business when he was only twelve years old having bought his first horse for fifteen shillings. In the late 1870s and early 1880s he advertised widely for his livery stables in Tauranga. In 1877 he was appointed as the Tauranga pound keeper at the age of twenty.
In 1883 he won the contract for mail deliveries from Tauranga to Ohinemutu (Rotorua) and then purchased the coaching plant of William Kelly, one of his competitors. He became involved in transporting tourists to the Pink and White Terraces and after the Tarawera eruption, on June 10 1886, assisted in the evacuation of women and children from Te Wairoa. His efforts were widely reported in the newspapers at the time. During the time that he was a coach proprietor, he bought out no fewer than fourteen opposition lines.
His firm possessed stables on the roads to Tauranga, Te Puke, and on both roads to Taupo, as well as Tauranga, Taupo and Te Puke. Coaches ran regularly twice a week to Tauranga by the bush road, twice a week to Te Puke, twice a week to Taupo, via Waiotapu and Wairakei, and once a week to Taupo, via Ateamuri. About one hundred horses and thirty-five coaches and conveyances were used in connection with the business, and from sixteen to twenty-five men were employed in working the trade. He was considered to be the biggest private employer in the area during the early 1900s.
He personally owned several blocks of land in Pererika St and side streets in the vicinity are named after his daughters, Anne and Elizabeth. His home, Robertson House, is a B&B today, was built from 1903-1905 and is significant as a good example of the Victorian Bay Villa.
It retains most of the original features of this style, including Union Jack balustrades and intricate fretwork decorations around the verandah posts, a hood and more fretwork over the bay windows, a finial on the gable front, brackets under the eaves and two tall corbelled brick chimneys.
Robertson House (A1.1 1.14) and both horse troughs are listed (A1.3 3.3 & 3.4) in the Appendix 1 of the Rotorua Cultural Historic Heritage Inventory.
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