Route 6 Cafe Lumsden

In deepest Southland, is a wild west diner without compare in New Zealand.

Route 6 Cafe is not only brimming with character, Americana, memorabilia and a genuinely applied cool name, it is also housed in the building where New Zealand's biggest bank robbery took place, on St Patrick's Day, 1983.

Only a few short decades ago, the BNZ bank were the long term owners and tenants of this cool little building. With it's flat front toward State Highway Six, and counting the butcher and the District Council for neighbours, the BNZ was an unlikely target for the brazen robbery. Nearly a decade before unsuspecting Aramoana became the small town famous for mass murder, Lumsden, of similar size and stature, took the prize for our biggest robbery.

The offenders were all the way from Christchurch, and they were named Alistair Barr and Gibson Grace. In true wild west style they simply walked in with firearms and demanded cash, their only disguise being motorcycle helmets. Though they walked out with 107,000, Grace missed his getaway ride and had to go bush, near Castlerock. He then made a run for it and got all the way to Auckland with the money, while Barr was caught and locked up in Christchurch a few weeks later. Freedom was also shortlived for Grace, as he was found dead in Titirangi in September of that year, thought to have been murdered by Barr and an associate named Rick Morgan. Both were later convicted of his murder and jailed for life.

The old BNZ in Lumsden kept trading until 1996, when it went the way of many financial institutions in smaller centres and shut. The building lives to tell the tale and the current inhabitants have made a true western style diner from it. The decor celebrates Automobiles, all things American and even has a special surfboard installed as the bar. In pride of place in the centre of the room is a 1955 Dodge Kingsway, and the guests are challenged to spend their meal working out how she was installed, the windows and doors of the old bank not being oversize. Out the back is courtyard dining.

The bank's strongroom has become the kitchen and churns out hotdogs and other American cuisine, while out front they have a sideline in everything from crafts and homewares to postal services.

Image Credits: Route 6 Cafe