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Story: Hotels and motels

Motel décor

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Motel décor

The interior décor of early motel units was similar to that in private homes. The formica table and matching kitchen bench, chrome and vinyl chairs, and heavily patterned curtains of this Bay of Islands motel would have been a familiar domestic sight to most visitors, though the unadorned concrete-block wall gives the game away.

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Archives New Zealand - Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga

Reference: AAQT 6401/A66,235

by Gregory Riethmaier

Permission of Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga must be obtained before any re-use of this material.

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How to cite this page

Paul Christoffel, Hotels and motels – Motels, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/21278/motel-decor (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Paul Christoffel, published 4 March 2010.