Trying to Cook in NZ

So, it turns out that Wanaka, a town of 2000, doesn’t have much in the way of employment during the shoulder season of May and June. In fact, it doesn’t offer much in the way of jobs at all. Nina and I spent one night in a hostel when we returned to Wanaka a week ago so we could shower and I could shave my month old beard off. We then headed into the Wanaka job agency. That turned out to be quite a disappointment. They told us that there won’t really be any jobs available for at least six weeks. We should try traveling to Milford or Dunedin instead. Well, since we just did that, we decided to stay in town. That day, Treble Cone, one of the two ski fields we applied to told us that they didn’t need us for the 2008 season. So, there we were with no leads and one ski field already denying us. We were still hopeful though. We found some places to rent skis for the season and decided on not getting season passes, but getting a discount card instead. That left our options open for skiing at either mountain. We even planned a budget that could keep us in Wanaka until ski season and all the restaurants and shops started hiring. Our next stop was the Cardrona ski field office to check on our applications. It turned out that the food and beverage manager wasn’t able to start until that day and that she had a couple hundred applications to go through. She was hoping to start calling people in the next week or two for interviews. We left her a note, telling her we were in town and would like to talk to her. Then we waited.

Our plan was to camp at a nice little campground a few minutes out of town. It is situated along side the Clutha River with great views in every direction. After a few days, we began to run into some problems. Even though it isn’t quite winter and the ski resorts aren’t planning on opening for another six weeks, it is getting cold. It was so cold that we spent a lot of time sitting in the car reading. It was getting pretty boring. After five nights on the ground, we were cold and very bored. We decided to give Dunedin a try until the ski season. We could get jobs for a couple of weeks and then head back to Wanaka for some skiing all winter long. We stopped by the Cardrona office one more time to check in and were told that the F&B manager was planning on calling people in the next few days. We decided to give it two more nights on the ground and then head out of town. After seven cold nights, we headed into town one last time before heading out. That day, we heard that the manager was going to call people the next day and we got her phone number. We called her, left a message and got a room in a hostel for the night. The next morning, we were woken by our phone angrily buzzing, telling us that we had a message. A few hours later, we were having coffee with Cardrona’s new food and beverage manager at a coffee shop. She told us about the whole operation and offered us jobs. She said that we were at the top of her list since we had good food service experience. This is the second job interview I have had in New Zealand where it seemed like I was hired before coming in. Needless to say, Nina and I were very excited about our job. Now, we have jobs to go back to, a season pass, free lessons, cheap rentals and $20NZ lift tickets at Treble Cone (usually $99NZ), the same days off, and most evenings off. It is going to be great.

So, after the interview, we headed to Dunedin for the next month. We got in yesterday and stayed in a slightly grim and cramped hostel. This morning, Nina went into a temp agency and aced all their tests for admin work. Then we moved into another hostel. We paid for one week in advance and then were shown our room. It is great. It is huge with two great windows overlooking the city and a cool raised platform with a sofa. I want to live here. We have enough money to hang our here for the next month, but are going to find some work so as not to clean out the coffers.

It took a few days to get to the internet to post this. So here is a little more news. I got a job as a cook at the Rooftop Restaurant just a short 20 minute walk from our hostel. I don’t know how many hours a week it will be, but it should be enough for me to live on for the next few weeks. Nina has been to a couple of temp agencies and has an interview with a man at the Dunedin City Council. They are looking for an admin person for their IT division. That sounds like it is just up her alley.

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