Obituary: Jones force of nature who led creative life

Otago Daily Times

2 days ago

Rosemarie Jones
July 28, 1939 — August 2, 2025
From starting life evacuating her bombed family home in Cologne, Germany, during World War 2 to ending it in the heart of Wānaka, with which she fell in love at first sight,
Rosemarie Jones led a colourful and creative life.
The restoration of the Cardrona Hotel in 1974 with husband Eddie Jones stands out as one of her biggest projects, but Mrs Jones had many talents, ranging from being an accomplished chef, to a fine knitter, to co-running the Wānaka crafts store.
"We had her famous sourdough pancakes she would always make and so would our friends. People always shared her Sunday sourdough pancakes," her daughter, Sonia Jones, said.
Rosemarie jumped on a ship to Australia where she lived for three years before heading to New Zealand for only six weeks in 1965, meeting her eventual husband.
Mrs Jones went on to travel to the United States and Canada, but the pair kept in touch via letter writing. Mr Jones proposing they get married in ink.
Shortly after they married in Mr Jones' home country of England in 1967, they moved to Canada and then back to New Zealand together. They were married 27 years.
The couple adored their new home country from the beginning.
The lived initially in Auckland and then made their way south.
"When they came to Wānaka, they just loved it and bought a section within three hours," Sonia said.
The Cardrona Hotel stands tall and proud today as one of the region's most iconic buildings, but it was once under the serious threat of extinction having been built during the gold rush of the 1860s.
The Jones bought the hotel in 1974 and, if it were not for them, the famous hotel that will sell in the millions later this month would have been bulldozed.
Mr Jones died in May this year, but the legacy of the restoration continues to be upheld by their children, Sonia and Eiko Jones.
By the time the couple encountered the hotel, it had paid the price of neglect.
"It's a shame to stand there and rot," Mrs Jones said in June this year when recalling seeing the hotel for the first time.
"We both come from a country where houses are 1500 years, and that needed to be restored."
During the project the couple wished to keep the original name, but liquor licensing authorities kicked up a fuss and wanted to remove the rights to calling it a hotel at all.
A fighter, Mrs Jones took their troubles to television consumer rights show FairGo and the hotel proudly stands today with The Cardrona Hotel proudly on the facade.
"They worked really hard to keep it authentic," Sonia said.
She was only a small child when the restoration took place, but she remembered her parents as creative and inventive people.
She had vivid memories of accompanying her parents as they went treasure hunting in demolition sites for materials and later on helping her father in the restaurant.
"I was in nappies. It was amazing to grow up around all the entrepreneurs at Cardrona Ski field and our parents. It was very fascinating."
One of the key elements of the restoration process was the revival of the facade.
Today it is hailed as the hotel's most recognisable feature, but during the 1970s it was falling down.
"So we preserved the facade forward, and we had all our friends come with their car and jacks to hold it," Mrs Jones said in June.
The full restoration took about 10 years, and the hotel opened again in 1983. They sold it after 14 years living and working there.
After that they moved in to Wānaka and opened up a cafe called Anatoles, named after a children's book about a naughty family of French mice.
"They were phenomenal cooks. My mum was an amazing baker and chef. She did all the baking, the mulled wine and sourdough bread."
She then helped set up the co-operative crafts store The Artisan Store, in Wānaka where many crafts people would sell and buy screen prints, knitware and artwork.
"Lots of people have her boutiques. She learned a bit of it when in LA when travelling.
Both of our parents are good at lots of skills."
Mr and Mrs Jones eventually separated and she went on to marry her German childhood sweetheart, Gunter Schurger, in 1997. Both men died in the past three years, which her daughter says impacted her health.
Still, Mrs Jones was making her famous sourdough pancakes right up until end, at age 86.
Mrs Jones leaves behind two children, Sonia and Eiko Jones, and two grandchildren Corina and Connor.
"She was a force of creativity, and a force of nature, multi-skilled with a huge cheeky smile."