Suspicious fire threatens NZ's oldest building at Kerikeri Basin

A storage shed caught fire just after 11:30pm on a Friday night in Kerikeri, metres from one of the country's most significant heritage sites. The blaze destroyed the shed entirely and scorched one wall of the adjacent Honey House Café, damaging its water pipes and electrical systems. But it was what nearly happened that made this fire consequential: the flames stopped short of the two-storey café building itself, and crucially, did not reach Kemp House—the 204-year-old structure standing immediately behind it, currently wrapped in protective plastic while its roof shingles undergo replacement.

Kemp House was built between 1821 and 1822 by missionaries from the London-based Church Missionary Society. It was constructed by missionary carpenters working alongside Māori sawyers, and later became home to the Kemp family. The building stands as a physical record of early contact between Māori and Pākehā in the settlement. Nearby, the Stone Store—erected between 1832 and 1836—completes a cluster of heritage structures that define the Kerikeri Mission Station site. The Honey House itself, despite its historic appearance, was built in 1976 on the site of a former barn. It houses a café on its ground floor and Heritage New Zealand offices upstairs. The café, which opened in 2012, draws some of its recipes from historic archives and uses fruit from the mission station's heritage orchard.

A man heading to work spotted smoke rising near the basin and called emergency services at 11:30pm. The first fire truck arrived to find the storage shed burning intensely. Firefighters called for a second truck and backup from Ōkaihau and Paihia. Kerikeri deputy fire chief Andy Hamberger later described what might have unfolded differently: if the crew had arrived even a few minutes later, the flames could have consumed the Honey House and spread from there to Kemp House, which was particularly vulnerable because of the plastic sheeting surrounding it for the roofing work. "Without him being pretty vigilant on his way to work, we could be looking at a major building fire, or a heritage building being lost, or certainly significantly damaged," Hamberger said of the caller.

Police are investigating the fire as suspected arson. Initial indications suggest the blaze was deliberately lit, though the cause has not yet been confirmed. John O'Hare, Heritage New Zealand's spokesman for Northland, called the suspected deliberate ignition "appalling" and "deeply disappointing." He noted that neither Kemp House nor the Stone Store sustained damage, but acknowledged how narrow the margin had been. "It was very, very close, and we're just very thankful that that Kemp House didn't catch alight," he said.

The entire Kerikeri Mission Station site has been closed while police and Fire and Emergency New Zealand conduct their investigations. The Honey House Café is expected to remain closed for the foreseeable future as repairs to its structure, water systems, and electrical infrastructure proceed. The fire has left unanswered questions about who set it and why, with authorities still working to establish the facts. What remains clear is that a single person's attention to detail—noticing smoke in the night—likely prevented the destruction of one of New Zealand's oldest buildings.