So this was a long time coming. I actually started writing it multiple times but got distracted or busy. Luckily I try and message people when I can, so generally people were kept up to date on my adventures or lack there of. I may need to break this into sections instead of chronological. And hopefully it is coherent. I started writing this draft and there is more than I thought, covering a large time span. I'm still missing a lot of smaller details but I think I spelt everything correctly.
So about the end of September I spent a week in Wanaka and ended up talking to the guy working at the hostel frequently. He mentioned how busy it can get during the summer and how annoying it can be to travel. (I learned how correct he was this last week. Supposedly it's been there busiest summer yet, and the few campsites I tried staying at were packed.) Since I spent most of the money I made in the vineyards on my car, I felt like looking into getting a job again.
I wanted to try something different and in hospitality. I looked into hostels but unfortunately most offer you free board for working 10-15 hours a week. The one place with an actual job was filled hours after they posted. I expanded my search and found a position 1.5 hours away in Otematata. I phoned up the owner, drove there for an interview, and started a few days later.
Brent and Kirsty bought the holiday park in Otematata approximately 5 years years ago, and then the bar/ restaurant/ hotel 2 years ago. I was hired for minimum 30 hours a week doing whatever they needed. The job didn't pay near enough for what I ended up doing but I took it for the experience rather than money. It was good, if some highs and lows like any job.
The Location:
Otematata is a very small town located near the centre of the island. It's a main through way to get to the other coast but also a popular vacationing spot for locals. The road follows a natural valley between two small mountain ranges. The town has a base population of 190 people, but during Christmas this jumps up to 6000 with 20000 or more in the area in the various campsites. The valley use to be very dry until they built 3 large hydro electric dams. This created the large lakes which draw in fisherman, campers, boaters, and other vacationers. The lakes also allow for a huge amount of irrigation in the area which over the years allowed for the farms to flourish. There are other small towns along the road, the Alps to Ocean biking trail, and a few hiking trails.
The Work:
I started bar tendering, doing property maintenance, and a little bit of waitering. I picked up the bartending quickly since I've been a cashier and the drinks were mostly beer, premixed, or simple cocktails. The maintenance involved a lot of gardening and yard work, painting of the hotel rooms, and just generally cleaning the property for the busy season coming up. By Christmas, I shifted more into working as a kitchen hand. This involved a lot of dishes, grabbing things from storage for the chefs, and learning to make simple things like appetizers or desserts. Either due to enjoying working with me or my competence, the head chef stated using me more. I stated helping with a lot of prep work and making more food in the kitchen. During my last week, we lost one of the chefs and I worked the front line helping making food during the dinner rush.
While there I learned I didn't enjoy being a waiter. Though that may have to do with the fact that one of my first times was during the very busy weekend with no real help. Soon after was during a different busy weekend where we just changed to the new menu. Though most people were nice, there were a few very entitled people every night. I've heard from multiple people how they hate getting told to smile or be happy or some such nonsense and understand that better now. It got old fast getting insulted over how the menu is set up, the food was different then they expected, or they had to wait to long even though they showed up near close while we are packed and warned them of the wait. Reminded me of being yelled at for gas prices when I worked as a gas attendant.
The People:
I enjoyed working with Brent and Kirsty, though not everyone got along with them as well. Over the years, there have been a few problems with the old staff and so everyone else had worked there for less than a year when I started. For the more permanent staff, Tania was the longest at like 8 months and worked during the day in the restaurant and did a bunch of accounting. Dana was a younger woman who started a couple months before me. She moved there with her boyfriend and was the duty manager for the bar most night. I end up living with her and her partner and dog in the staff house. I worked with her a lot on the bar when I first stated and we got along well. Hung out a bit outside of work, taking the dog for walks or swimming. Emma joined us at Christmas and has been there for multiple summers but was joining long term. Another duty manager and ran the wait staff. The last permanent staff is Salitha (Sully), a Sri Lankan chef. He joined last just before Christmas to get sponsored for residence after working there a year.
For temporary staff, Jojo was a Samoan chef who had travelled a lot for work. He was the head chef and I sent most of my time with him and learned a lot. Supposedly he could be hard to work under but maybe due to my inexperience I found it decent. He was hired to replace their old kitchen staff and get the restaurant running smoothly. I enjoyed talking to him about the business side of the kitchen, where he talked about making all the food at a maximum of 30% cost when the old staff had trouble getting below 60% and went as high as 95%. Brent also changed the menu to a Texas smoked meat style restaurant, which is partial why Jojo came, the challenge of making the new menu and experimenting with the flavours. He has a lot of cool experiences like working on the set of the Hobbit and talking with Peter Jackson, working at world racing events, or just different kitchen mishaps and stories. Though I didn't like his view on woman and a few other topics, I enjoyed his company and once I became a more permanent fixture in the kitchen, we ended most work days with some beer and pool.
Coco (Alec) was a French chef who joined us for the busy season. He joined around the time Samuel ( english) and Holly (scottish), a couple, joined us. Melaine (American) joined a little after. These four and Sully lived in a really nice house for the busy season. It got a little weird ( in a silly way) there but a lot of fun. I didn't visit as much as I should have due to work but we did a few trips and hang outs. I even played a few games like Qwirkle and dice/cards with them. For such a short period, I got close to Melanie, Sam, and Holly and hope to visit them again before I leave the country and maybe after depending on circumstances.
Jamie and Trish were two I didn't get to know as well. Both left early due to being unhappy there. Jamie left after her family member got sick and returned to the states 3 weeks after starting. Trish was I think a Kiwi but worked at the holiday park so I barely saw her. She stayed for the busy season, but did not get along with Kirsty and just left one night. I stated hanging out with Jamie before she left, even got her playing the electronic version of Lords of Waterdeep I downloaded but it was short lived.
Jason was also there for a short time, helping out as a secondary chef for a few weeks. He is a friend of Brent's from their djing days. He was there before my kitchen handing but we got along well. Stayed with him in Dunedin when I went to Jimmy Carr's show.
The other summer help was made up of the boss's kids and two high school students I didn't exchange more than a few words with. I enjoyed working with the oldest kid but he could be a little frustrating as any 15 year old boss's son can be.
Other than workers, I met a few locals or other travellers. Allie was another American working in the town at the sheep station. Nick was an Australian who joined the station for a month or so. They would hang out with the other local young adults and I joined them for a few nights. Unfortunately, I usually was working when they came in so didn't get as close as I'd like. The rest of the regulars were retired people that lived in town. Nice people just not much in common. Allie had a travelling friend who was trying to design a board game for backpackers. Looked like it could be really fun and informative since it showed a lot of the places to visit. Unfortunately he brought some home made alcohol which I'm pretty sure burned my nose hairs.
Notable Events:
The best thing about my living was I had a dog to play with. Dana had a collie husky mix 7 month old dog. I tried taking her walking and to the beach frequently since I didn't think she got enough walks generally. Very energetic and smart dog, just wasn't well trained.
One of the annoying parts of the job was I've seen way too many penises working that bar. At least three times we had a group of like 15 guys strip down. I saw less in the male change roomswhen I played hockey.
Being my general friendly looking self, I also got a few invites to check out people's work or hang out with their group. I never checked out the shearing station since the timing was bad and the invites came from very drunk individuals, but I did spend one afternoon at the lake with a large group of college grads.
During one of my first weekends working, we had a large hunting competition based out of the bar. It was a cool weekend talking to the random people. There was also a large group of Maori shearers who joined us for the nights. The night was very eventful, even had the Maori boys perform a Haka dance. Unfortunately, someone stole a few of the carcasses which soured the mood a bit and one guy made some stupid comments to one of the Maori guys. Since they stick together and the guy would not shut up, the night ended badly with a 1 vs. 15 fight. No one was seriously injured luckily.
Brent also made many comments about being happy to have a crew that could hang out outside of work. By the end of the season, he mentioned how well it went, Emma even said it was the best temporary staff she's worked with. The last crew of permanent would never hang out after work enjoying a beer and each other's company or just go some place as a group. With this crew, there were more then a few nights where most of us stayed around after close talking and drinking, being joined by the band or Brent's friends. One night we drove to Omarama to visit a different bar and check out a band that was coming to our bar a few weeks later.
Sam, Holly, and Melaine all joined right around December 11th when we had our company party. Brent rented a bus and took us to Cromwell motorpark. We did the go kart race, rode a lap on the race track, and finished with a wine tasting for a local wine we sell at the bar. We ended the day at our bar with food, alcohol, pool, and karaoke. Felt bad for the chefs since they made us food, but it was delicious.
After that not much happened, hung out with people, went star gazing, I did have a week off right before Christmas rush but I'll cover that in next post. After that it was just work. Starting on the 27th, we had 150 to 200 dinners daily compared to of 20 to 50 people on a busy night. Every hotel room, campground, and rental was booked solid for weeks straight. Had a great band new years eve though was to busy to enjoy it. It started quieting down mid January and I started hanging out with the others more. A few midnight swims or games.
The End:
Though I don't feel impulsive, I've made some very big decisions on very short notice. I was invited to live with a friend in Alberta, and 2 months later I'm there. My house mate was moving out and a friend was selling her place making me think about owning, and 3 months later I put down a down payment. Even quitting my old job, it should have happened earlier, but once I applied and got my working holiday visa, my mind was made up. Unfortunately, having a house and medical issues delayed the actual leaving. Generally, the change was necessary because I was unhappy with things going on in my life. And even done quickly, it was still thought out.
With the job, most was good but some things were starting to get to me. Inconsistent instruction, being told to do something then being interrupted to do something that was more "important" but getting yelled at since the first thing wasn't finished in the minutes I got to start it, Working everywhere under different people and getting constant contradictory instructions. Along with minimum wage and weird shifting hours, I was slowly getting more negative. I hadn't noticed it to much but it was more obvious when I was given an out from the job in the form of a road trip.
Around mid January, Melaine was considering quitting and traveling the southern part of the island. She invited me to join her. It took a couple days but I decided to go. Unfortunately quitting was not what Brent wanted. I tried to give two weeks but supposedly my contact was for 4 weeks notice. Considering I agreed to 3 months with possible longer and it was almost 4, 1/3 of my visa, with no talks about staying longer or what was happening. He tried manipulative, guilt tripping comments with penalties and had nothing positive to say about my work there, So i felt better about quitting. Sucks to leave on less positive terms but I tried. It was time to get out of there and travel again.
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