Roving writer wends way home

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 2, Issue 9, 31 July 1984, Page 10

Roving writer wends way home

The Waimarino Bulletin office in Clyde Street Ohakune often receives visitors enquiring about such things as available accommodation, seeking directions to various recreational and sightseeing venues, asking about the price of sections or the whereabouts of estate agents and enquiring about the prospect of seasonal work in the Waimarino during the winter months. So, when in late May a certain young man with an American accent came into the office and asked if there was a chance of a job he received (initially at least) ,the somewhat discouraging stock answer ... that the demand for accommodation

and employment nearly always exceeded supply in Ohakune during the winter months. Then he identified himself not as one of our usual run of ski orientated visitors, but as a first year student of journalism at the University of Oklahoma in the States. Somewhat to his surprise he suddenly found he had a job ... right here at the Bulletin. Twenty-one year old Mark Russell of Norman, Oklahoma was inducted into the Waimarino Bulletin team as a 'stringer' then and there and his first assignment was within hours of his arrival in Ohakune. He did that job and many others well despite his

unfamiliarity with the local scene and customs. Mark worked as a roving reporter for the Bulletin for about six weeks before heading south to continue his tour of New Zealand and then returned to Ohakune last week on his way north again to catch his flight back to the States.

His company and conversation in the Bulletin office was always entertaining and informative and, judging from the impressions he's formed of New Zealand, he will no doubt make an excellent 'ambassador at large' back home in Oklahoma.