Wearing Many Hats

It’s a totally different way of life, living rurally. Eighteen years ago, when I was visiting my family over in England, we looked at the location on a map and I heard a collective “Oh? Ooh.” They just couldn’t believe the vastness of New Zealand and its rural communities.

I had been living on another station at the edge of the Te Anau Basin. That was remote, but at least close to the highway. Coming to the Mackenzie District, everything was even further away: getting fish and chips from Fairlie on a Friday night took fifty minutes – each way. Twizel was a closer option, but getting there involved crossing rivers. That way may have been slightly quicker, but there was the whole water thing to consider! Now I’m much closer to town after a couple of years on the station. It’s a five-minute walk to go to the pub to get fish and chips.

Haldon Station was a community in itself. The mail run came once a week and you were always working with the other families up the road; if I was doing some baking and needed this or that, people were always willing to help out, were always looking out for you. It’s something you don’t necessarily get in a town.

Back in Mossburn, I had been the secretary at Plunket and also on the board for Plunket Northern Southland, and the Plunket secretary role in Fairlie was allocated to me before we even arrived in Mackenzie. They said, “She’s moving into the valley, she’ll take on the secretary role that needs filling.” One of those things!

I’ve been told, on more than one occasion, “Look, Claire, you need to start saying no to some of these things!” At the time my youngest started school I was still the secretary for the Mackenzie Toy Library, had joined the Home and School Association at the local primary school, and I was involved with the JAB (junior rugby) – managing, prizegiving and fundraising. Following on from that I joined the committee of the local rugby club. I’ve been the bar person here for the past ten years!

I’ve had another ten-year anniversary this year, at PGG Wrightson. The time has gone by very quickly – you don’t realise how long you’ve been with a company until those anniversaries come around. I first came in as a customer service representative. At that point, there was just a store manager and one other customer service rep working in the store with two field reps and three livestock agents.

“I’m probably my own worst enemy because I can’t say no. You do one community event – I’d put my hand up to help with the bar or to raise funds – and that’s that, you’re in it for good.”

When the store manager left, just over two years ago, I said, “Nope, no, not doing that role,” but everybody else said, “No, no, you can do it. You’re doing it!” I don’t like blowing my own trumpet. Never have done, never will do. So it’s a nice feeling when you’ve been told by clients you should be putting your hand up to take on a particular role and responsibility. It’s a boost to the old ego, that they feel you can do that job.

I always have lots of hats on. Answering a telephone call, I have to quickly select which hat is most appropriate to have on at that moment. Or I might think to myself, “If I keep a certain hat on will I also be able to do other things that might be asked?”

I know I need to delegate more. But I think I’d miss being involved in some of these community things if I wasn’t putting my hand up. So, I still do. Everybody works together – I see the same people on the community boards, always the same people helping out. We want to raise money for our community and see it being used well. Like the local playground; you can still see it going, kids playing on it. You get to say, “I was part of that team.” It’s a great feeling.

The kids that I remember from playing rugby and whatnot with my own kids are now in their early twenties, coming to the bar, and I’m starting to feel old. I haven’t got quite the patience that I used to, but the boys know how far they can push it before I’ll say, “Enough’s enough, go and annoy somebody else now.” I actually tried to get out of being bar manager last year. I’m still doing it, so you can see how well that went down for me!

 

This story appeared in the Kōanga Spring 2022 Edition of Shepherdess.