Ohakune: Welcome to the Mountain

21st June - 1st July 2014

The driver of the Naked Bus kindly dropped me off at The Lodge which saved me the half hour walk from the main town of Ohakune to The Junction. I was one of the first people to move in an Yvette, the staff accommodation supervisor, showed me a few rooms. I chose one at the back of the building which had one double bed and one single and I claimed the double, obviously.

The kitchen

The Lodge used to be a functioning hotel with bar and restaurant so the living area was quite unusual. I wasn't expecting to be cooking in a fully functional restaurant kitchen and eating at the bar in front of the fire. Its a cool place.

cool living space

The Mountain

Sunday was spent mostly settling in and meeting people. I met up with Rachel, Ashleigh and Helen who I had met at interviews and they introduced me Sarah, Vicky and Rob. I had spent best part of a month in Dunedin sat on my arse barely talking to anyone so now I was quite happy to be chatting away to everyone. The problem with this was that I had lost what little conversation filter I had. I was probably saying things that were best left until we knew each other better. Everyone was quite shocked when I told them that I had used their names from a group email to stalk them on facebook! I can't have been the only one and I was surprised they found it quite as shocking as they did but hey ho! Apparently Elaine, our supervisor who had turned up by that point, had said "oh my god, what have I hired!?" when I was in the loo. Its all good though. They got used to me eventually!

I also bumped into Bohdi, a Kiwi Experience driver. That was really quite random. We both said to each other "what are you doing here!"

First day on the mountain

The next week we had our induction. The first day on the mountain was a whole day of speeches and presentations. The morning was FISH which is a company that go around businesses telling people to 'choose your attitude' and other stuff like that. They show a video of a fish market in America with people who really seem to enjoy there jobs. The woman giving the talk was a little put out when nobody laughed because usually people do. Then we were split into groups to make a presentation on what we had just watched and I got royally stitched up by my group who all decided it would be me who spoke. I was having high school flashbacks of me botching this stuff up but I nailed it. I even got a small but very notable laugh!

The afternoon was filled by the managers from every department giving a little speech and then a volcano hazards talk which was a bit scary. There would be some warning if the mountain was about to go up but it wouldn't be long. Its been 18 years since the last major eruption. Major eruptions only happen every 50 years but minor eruptions happen much more regularly, the last one in 2007. In a weird way it would be really cool to witness a volcanic explosion but perhaps not while I'm on it!

There was the most unexpected end to the induction day when we all went down to see the local Maoris who officially welcomed us. The mountain is a sacred site to the Maori which they call Koro, the Maori word for grandfather. I think there is this unofficial rule that nobody is allowed on the mountain until the Maori have said so and they don't really stop anyone. Plus they get given a lot of money from RAL. We had the welcome ceremony followed by a talk and then we had a meal that they had prepared for us which was really rather good.

Snow

The rest of the week was filled with departmental training. I think we spent 3 whole days learning the till system which wasn't exactly exciting. What was exciting was when it finally started snowing! Not a lot and nowhere near enough to be open at the weekend.

winter wonderland

Compusary snow angel

There had been a bit of snow drought in the weeks leading up to opening weekend which meant that we weren't going to open on time. I still got some work though as I had started at New World Supermarket. Another full and fun down of induction! There was a few of us from our department that had signed up to do the occasional shift at New World. This is the first year that they have had this shared staff arrangement and in theory it should work quite well. We are busy in the mornings when everyone arrives on the mountain and they are busy in the evening when everyone leaves the mountain. Should we ever have a closed day then they will be fairly busy all day and will need staff so there should always be hours available but we will have to wait and see how that pans out.

Setting up for Mardi Gras

I had heard quite a lot about Ohakune Mardi Gras and it was hard not to given that it was literally on our doorstep. In fact they would be using our front balcony for VIPs. We weren't allowed to use our own balcony even though we had paid rent to use that space! I snuck out and spent most of the evening on the balcony anyway.

Stage

I knew that it was going to be a big night but I had no idea. It was a HUGE night. I didn't know the bands but they seemed good and the fireworks were pretty spectacular. Especially for the four massive expolosions at the end. Never seen that a firework display before and I thought it was aweosme!

Go for a ride?

fireworks!

Crowd shot

Party

After the fireworks it was time for the real party to start. I met up with Wannes and Nele and we went and joined the crowd in front of the stage. Wannes and I went for a ride on the spinny thing. Then I got very drunk. Good night!

Blurry party

The Mardi Gras officially started the winter season but the was one quite major issue - no snow! I had a few shifts a New World which was lucky as nobody was getting hours on the mountain. Luckily we didn't have to wait too long. On the Wednesday following non-opening weekend we woke up to snow in town and the season finally got underway.