3. Now You Work!
Once the entire team had been dropped off by the helicopter, the twelve of us familiarised ourselves with the layout before going to our bedrooms to unpack. Being a Manager, I had one of the two staff ensuite rooms and it was at the front of the staff quarters. It was to very basic cabin-standards but at least I had my own bathroom.
Pompolona Lodge is often referred to as the tree-hut lodge as it sits on the side of a mountain range on the Milford Track at 400m altitude. It is located between two avalanche-formed rivers, Marlene's and Pompolona, and we would become very familiar with the rumble of nearby avalanches as the snow melted with the warmer weather.
The lodge is literally nestled on the side of a mountain so every cabin was located either up or down some stairs or on along a boardwalk. The staff areas were within two main buildings containing the staff area, kitchen, guest lounge and bar area beyond, and in the other building areas was the office, second staff area, storeroom, walk in cool room and freezer, laundry, supply room, rubbish room, and cleaning room.
We happened to arrive on a very cold and windy day so once unpacked, I put on a warm hat and fingerless gloves. Within five minutes, I had added another two layers of merino. Snow was forecast to 300m and I was sure I could see flakes coming from the grey sky when I looked up. There were now many waterfalls spilling off from the mountain tops due to the heavier rain and whilst it looked spectacular, I was frozen.
We all met up again in the lounge and were given a quick talk about what to expect. The Chef had disappeared into the storeroom and called out to the Lodge Manager that there was plenty of dry food left over from the last season and that we could use that for dinner until "stores" arrived. The Lodge Manager told us that Stores happened every Wednesday when the helicopter arrived with cages full of supplies and it would leave again with cages and nets full of rubbish and recycling. She looked at me and then said, “and that’s your job!”
It had been a long day and everyone was keen for some rest. We were instructed to set our alarms and be ready for a 6am sharp start in the kitchen. I quickly grabbed the hot water bottle that I had discovered in the top drawer in the bedroom and filled it up with boiling water and hugged it all the way to my room. The room was so cold, I piled six duvets and blankets on my bed, wore a hat and socks to bed, and when I woke up the following morning, I was still very cold!
At 5.45am it was pitch black because the staff quarter night lights were not working. The batteries were dead after that long cold winter - another thing to be fixed, the Chef announced. Fortunately I had put my clothes out the night before and I jumped from bed and into them as quickly as I could. I brushed my teeth and tied my hair up before opening the sliding door into the bitter cold darkness. I shone my torch down the boardwalk towards the generator room which was exactly 15 steps from my room.
I had been shown how to turn on the generator the day before and it was to be my first job. I found the door handle to the first door and opened it to find a second door, for sound-proofing, I assumed. Once inside, some faint night-lights helped navigate me to the front of the yellow generator.
There were two generators that ran the power for the lodge, however the bigger capacity white generator apparently choked and died when first powered up by the Lodge Manager. We later found out it's battery was also dead and needed to be replaced, so for the first week or so, we only used the yellow generator.
I found the oil stick and checked the level before turning the key to on, just like on a car. I waited a minute for it to warm up before pressing start and immediately it turned over and roared with power. It was like standing beside a big truck. Once I was happy it was working fine, I shut the two doors and walked out into the blackness. I looked up and could just make out the snow-capped mountains. Small snow flurries followed me as I found the door of the kitchen and let myself in.
"There is no cold water coming from our taps!" the Chef announced. “Another issue to sort”, he shouted out in his Canadian accent.
We were expecting 30 something guides that day who were on their first training walk and they all needed feeding and a bed to sleep in. We had to untie the sealed bags of linen left by the previous season and make beds in all of the cabins.
Unlike walkers who meander in over an hour or so, the guides all arrived at once and they all took a hot shower at the same time so the hot water ran out! Half naked guides came running down the stairs with concerned looks on their faces, but there wasn't anything we could do. They shouldn't have had such long showers, the Lodge Manager explained to me later.
The heating system was turned on for the rooms and the following day the yellow generator wouldn't start because the diesel tank had run out of fuel. “We” had forgotten to fill it, the Lodge Manager told me! We were given little training at all - we had to learn on the job, and boy were they many jobs!
There was so much to learn that we quickly became over-whelmed. We worked split shifts - early starts and late finishes, so by the end of shift, we would be very exhausted. Generally my last job of the night was turning off the generator at 10pm.
Fortunately I had found another hot water bottle in the staff quarters and filled both bottles with boiling water from the zip. I chucked them into my bed and crawled in. It was very dark, cold and now eerily quiet with only the sound of a Morepork breaking the icy cold silence.
I eventually fell asleep cuddling one of the hot water bottles and it only felt like minutes later when I woke to the 5:50am alarm. I pulled back the covers and found the torch before walking over to my prepared clothes. It was bitterly cold, both inside my room and out. I started the generator and walked onto the kitchen. The Chef had started half an hour earlier working under the dim battery-powered night-lights and fortunately the gas ovens had heated the room a little because I was shivering.
It was disorganised chaos as none of us knew what to do next. Follow the duty sheets, we were instructed, but we didn't even know where anything was stored, what procedures to follow. Most of us had never worked in hospitality before. I felt a bit stupid constantly asking the Chef where, what, how… and thought back to my first days working in London as a twenty-something.
I had secured a job working for an architect company as one of the partner's Personal Assistant, but he didn't like "antipodeans" and preferred Europeans, like the more sophisticated French woman who worked for his business partner. My boss's name was Will and he was a complete twat, although he was friends with Robert Geldof of 80's band, Boomtown Rats and I had hoped he would call or come in to the offices, but he never did. My job was to answer the phone "Bonjour. Comment puis-je t'aider?" or something like that because they had an office in France and apparently everyone should know French (even stupid kiwi’s).
At a Secret Santa party when we all sat around a table to open our gifts Will opened a present and pulled out a plastic willy. It was a plastic penis that had written on it, "Will's Penis". When he opened it, the entire room went eerily quiet. Who would give such a gift to the boss? I never admitted it was me but I know his assistant, Sophie George knew it was me.
She was their very young accounts person who had a very annoying accent. I found her extremely patronising because she repeatedly said, "You've got this!" when I told her I didn’t understand French. Why am I telling you this story? I would have totally forgotten about it except it was the Lodge Manager’s favourite thing to say to me. “You’ve got this!”
NO I DON’T! CLEARLY. Just train me and then I will have gotten it, FFS! Yes, I was very frustrated, early on in the piece. And cold and tired. Apparently they didn’t want to pay us for training days… learn on the job, the bosses told Management.
The first few days consisted of working long and arduous shifts without knowing when we would actually finish. Certainly it within the eight hours we were paid. It was when the Lodge Manager said stop. Additionally, not only was I learning all the lodge management duties, but at the same time, I was working the duty shifts. The physicality of the job was a lot and before I knew it, my body was feeling the pain and strain of it all and we were only a couple of days in!
I reminded myself that I was pushing boundaries and it was going to feel uncomfortable and hard at times. I just need to toughen up and get through the initial learning phase of the job. Fortunately I brought my entire medicine cabinet with me! Pop a Paracetamol and carry on.