The Bealey Hotel

The Bealey Hotel is a roadside hotel and restaurant at Bealey on State Highway 73, about 12 km east of Arthur's Pass village. Its villas and studios look toward the surrounding mountains. It's most useful as an overnight stay or meal stop on the way through the pass.

The hotel has a restaurant and bar for lunch and dinner. Lunch is seasonal, the sample menu changes, and non-guests are advised to reserve; the village is about a ten-minute drive away and has other cafés and a restaurant. Hotel guests get one free parking space per room, but the hotel doesn't state public parking terms for restaurant visitors.

This is a remote stretch of highway. Plan groceries and fuel before you arrive: the hotel lists Springfield or Sheffield as the last fuel stops from the east, and Kumara from the west. The hotel recommends arriving with a full tank and spare tyre, checking road conditions, and carrying snow chains in winter.

The first hotel here was called the Glacier Hotel. It opened in 1865, alongside the West Coast Road, and served coach traffic on the Christchurch–Hokitika gold-rush route. Travellers rested here before walking over Arthur's Pass toward the goldfields.

In 1883, former police sergeant James O'Malley enlarged the building and promoted mountain trips from the hotel. The nearest glacier was about 16 km away, but O'Malley led paying guests up the river to see it. The name was part sales pitch, part invitation to explore.

Fire destroyed the first Glacier Hotel in 1910. The county rebuilt a smaller bar, dining room and a few bedrooms to preserve its river-crossing licence. In 1928, publican Fred Cochrane made a business of hauling cars and their occupants across the Waimakariri River. The rebuilt pub burned again in 1937 and 1963; the present hotel stands across the road from the earlier site.

The hotel looks toward the Waimakariri and Bealey valleys, with the Southern Alps beyond. Mountain views from guest rooms and balconies are a recurring part of the stay.