UNDER SIEGE

While Prime Minister Jim Bolger was inside Larnach Castle, seemingly enjoying his visit, Margaret Barker was outside with a garden hose because part of the castle was on fire.

“It was a wooden fireplace in the ballroom,” she says of the incident some 30 years ago. “We had to jimmy it out of the wall, and I spent the night hosing down the fire surrounds.”

Deborah Price was waiting tables that night.

“I remember Margaret trying to put the fire out,” she says, laughing.

“It wasn’t our finest hour,” Margaret admits.

This year marks 150 years since