19. Walkers & Lodgees
There are some interesting terms used to explain specific things that relate to life on the track, like the guests paying for the experience are referred to as “the walkers,” we who live in the lodges are known as “the lodgees” and guides who walk with the walkers are know as “the guides.”
When walkers can’t continue doing the walk, they are referred to as “turnbacks.” The guide will let the Lodge Manager know there’s a turnback and a lodgee volunteer (who’s on their day off) must be found.
The turnback walker is referred to as “a returner” and incidentally, it is a bone of contention right now amongst the lodgees as they aren’t properly trained to take returners back to or to a lodge, especially because the returners tend to be fatigued, vulnerable and emotional.
As the section of track between Pomp and Quintin is the toughest by far, which includes a steep climb over the Pass and then a tricky long descent on a very uneven rocky path that can take out the sturdiest of knees, potential turnbacks are identified early on by the guides.
When they see walkers bum-shuffling over the rocky patch at Marlene’s creek (an avalanche site just before Pompolona lodge), or bending their spine outwards until the back of their head is almost hitting the ground, or taking an hour to cross the first rocky creek because their brain has never encountered uneven surfaces before, they get flagged as a “potential returner.”
There are the walkers who are just utterly unfit and would be out of breath walking to their letterboxes and you wonder how they thought they could climb a mountain.
There are the surprising walkers who look unfit, drink copious amounts of alcohol at each lodge the night before, and yet are the first to arrive at the next lodge. These are know as the first walkers. Guides will say they have a slow group or a fast group or that they have one or more slow walkers.
The first lodge in the track is Glade lodge and its located just 15 to 30 minutes walk from Glade wharf, which is located at the “northern end” of Lake Te Anau. The walkers are dropped off there after an hour long ferry ride from Te Anau Downs, and a bus trip from Queenstown preceding that.
The guides join them at the start of the trip and no doubt start scanning potential returners from the moment they look at people struggling to get up into the bus.
There is a small bush walk they do at Glade after arrival, and this is another opportunity for the guides to spot any potential returners. Occasionally some are turned back at this early stage!
There are a total of four guides that walk with each group, with a front guide leading the group and a back guide trailing at the end with the slowest walkers. Occasionally they have to carry a struggling walker’s pack, in addition to their own heavy pack, which is full of supplies and first aid gear.
When a slow walker eventually concedes they have to return, the back guide radios the lodge that they are returning and a lodgee who is on a day off typically agrees to meet them half way. The back guide then has to catch up with the rest of the group a couple of hours later.
The lodgee will get paid a half day to walk with the returner. It’s voluntary so towards the end of the season, lodgees become fatigued and it invariably reverts to the Chef, the Relief Manager or the Lodge Manager. It’s not an ideal situation hence the long sighs when a guide says… we have another returner.
Of course the injured or sick have to take the helicopter once they are back at a lodge. Each lodge has a helipad and there are the additional DOC helipads and rescue contingencies if the walker cannot walk to a lodge.
As a lodgee, you don’t really get to spend much time with the walkers, unless you happen to be rostered onto Host or Bar Duties, where you either show them to their room or serve them drinks at the end of the night.
If they are a returner who is hanging around at the lodge “to be returned,” the Duty Manager (me or the Lodge Mgr) will spend some time with them, especially if they are taking a helicopter out.
We had a Mary-Ann from Maryland who decided she couldn’t walk any further from Pomp and wanted to walk back to Glade, stay the night there before catching the returning ferry, get picked up by the company’s bus and be taken to Mitre Peak. Her husband continued on and they would reunite in a couple of days time and do the boat trip on the Milford Sounds together, the last excursion of the experience.
Mary-Ann had a slow southern-drawl that matched her walking pace and it would roll out between her words - there was no space from one word or sentence to the next. She spoke so loudly, the birds would flutter from their perches in the nearby beech trees.
The following morning I was room-stripping and found her outside her room. I had expected her to be fully packed and down in the lounge area, ready to be walked back - she would have been told this by the guide the previous night.
Instead she starts talking in a loud voice, Hi, I’m Maaarrryyyy-Annnnn-froommm-Maaaary-laaand!
She told me she still needed to have a shower so I told her to go quickly and then make her way down to the lounge area with her pack.
She told me she didn’t have a pack, just a plastic bag, because her haaarrrsssbaaaannnnd (husband) had carried her stuff in his pack. I guessed he must have been relieved to continue up the track at his pace and with a pack about eight kilos lighter.
As I continued to stripped rooms, I could hear this whistling and realised it was Mary-Ann having an extremely long shower and chirping out a happy tune. Half an hour later I knocked on Mary-Ann’s door and she came out all dripping wet. I told her to be downstairs in 15 minutes and our Chef would be the one walking with her.
The Chef had said to me he would do it as the last resort, and he was the last resort! He would also need to take a pack as she didn’t have one, I told him. Oh LOL, he said, with a deadpan expression.
The-whaaatttt? Mary-Ann asked me. The shhhaaat?
The Chef, I responded.
The shhaaat?
Suddenly aware of my kiwi-accent, I replied the SHAF, at which point she immediately understood.
For the rest of the day I found myself mimicking her southern-drawl. She had a Southern-gal innocence to her that I found endearing.
When the Chef eventually returned after meeting the Glade lodgee at a halfway, he said it was painfully slow as Mary-Ann just had to stop each walker who was going up the path to learn their life-story and share hers.
I had just done 16 days in a row of work, including stripping rooms, and in that time, I was amazed to find some rooms looking like there had been an exorcism performed. Beds were askew, sheets and blankets off the bed, water soaked floors - utter chaos.
Other rooms looked so barely touched I wondered if they walkers slid into the bed and out again without getting changed or having a shower!
When the Lodge Manager eventually returned from personal leave, I left for Quintin Lodge as planned. I had hobbled the entire way because my foot was still injured. On reflection, I shouldn’t have done the walk but I was desperate to get out and this was my last opportunity before the season ended.
Because of this injury, I decided to go in front of the departing group and just keep ahead… just in case I had to stop and needed assistance from the guides. I persevered up the Pass and the first guide eventually caught up and passed me, as she would need to get the tea and coffee ready for the walkers’ lunch stop at Pass Hut.
When I got to the hut moments later, I sat down and nursed my sore foot and sipped the hot tea the guide just poured for me. It wasn’t long before the first walkers appeared and heaven forbid my eyes took a second take when an Asian man appeared wearing a full business suit, complete with office-looking shoes.
There were about six walkers in the hut by this time so I asked the walker who had just sat down next to me… what’s with the guy wearing a business suit? She just shrugged saying that’s what he only wears. Later when I was at the staff dinner table at Quintin, I asked if anyone knew why the guy walked in a suit because earlier when I was walking down the track, he raced past me as if in full chase, barely touching the rocks with his office shoes.
I was told he owned a suit business and used this as a marketing stunt. Apparently he had just come off Mount Blanc where he wore not only a suit, tie and business shoes, he also carried a suitcase. Apparently when a guide first saw him, they asked if he had more appropriate footwear. He happily showed her the soles of his office shoes; they had been modified with a non-slip tread.
I eventually made it to Quintin Lodge after walking downhill over rocky terrain for three hours straight. The moment I stopped a swarm of sandflies started bombing my face, the only skin not covered. I was whacking and slapping when the Duty Manager appeared asking if I could please call Pomp. I joked that now the Lodge Manager was back, she probably would tell me to stay here.
I wasn’t far off… she asked that I stay another night, given I had worked so many days in a row. I agreed to the extra day off as my foot was so sore.
I decided to delay my visit to Sutherland Falls, NZ’s longest waterfall, to the following day and rest up my foot. At least as a Manager, I was treated to an ensuite room and I told everyone at the dinner table I’d be sleeping in. They laughed saying they hoped not to open my door the following morning when they strip the rooms, but of course an unsuspecting lodgee opened the door and then quickly shut it, apologising.
With just a month left in the season, I had been wondering if I had actually fractured a bone? I was about to find out!