Former hotel managers visit old stamping ground

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 3, Issue 12, 13 August 1985, Page 1

Former hotel managers visit old stamping ground

After an absence of more than a year a couple of very popular and familiar faces were to be seen in the Waimarino last week. Ross and Gail Henry — former managers of the Ohakune Hotel — were back in New Zealand for a short holiday and spent some time visiting friends and attending functions in the area they were very much in demand and difficult to get hold of to interview as their well-intentioned plans were constantly changed in response to invitations. For the past year they have been managing the Huon Gulf Motel in Lae, New Guinea. This brief break marks the half-way stage of their 2-year contract. Whether they will renew or extend the initial contract

period hasn't yet been decided but it is much more likely they will return to New Zealand next year to run a family-owned hotel in Hawkes Bay. Ross and Gail took on the tropically-situated Huon Gulf Motel challenge to broaden their experience after a brief stint (about four months) at Wanganui 's Rutland Hotel following their departure from Ohakune 's not nearly so tropical hotel in March last year. Life in New Guinea has certainly been an experiencebroadening exercise for them. The limitations of pidginEnglish communication has had its amusing as well as its frustrating moments. And, in a post-colonial society where the traditional master-servant relationship isstilldeeplyentrenched, the

self-sufficient kiwi egalitarianism is met with native bewilderment and even some mild hostility. "Life in fact could hardly be more different it's a whole new world, " said Ross. Asked if the problems currently affecting Port Moresby and widely reported in the international press — gang-rapes, looting, assaults etc. — are being experienced in Lae (which is on the northern and opposite coast of New Guinea) Ross replied that, whilst one has to be careful and sensible, the situation in Lae was not nearly as bad. "In fact if we were asked to transfer to Port Moresby, Gail and I would return to New Zealand pronto." According to their friends in the Waimarino it wouldn't take much to persuade them to return anway.