Ana Apatu: Staff impressive; workplace grotty

Ana Apatu

I wait in queue in the Flaxmere Post Shop. I am a frequent customer now that I work from Te Aranga Marae Flaxmere. Yes the Flaxmere Post Shop building is grotty - would it be so run down if the building was in Havelock North? - but this week I want to share how impressed I am by the staff. Despite the queue, which there always seems to be, the staff are polite, never appear frazzled "and never make you feel as if your postage or banking query is of any bother.

While not wanting to overhear any conversations " it is clear that some people are stressed "whether it be to pay off bills, sort out banking queries, perhaps struggling to fill out forms, car registrations, postage queries etc. I observe their courteous efficient and caring attitude to whomever comes in the door. Your service is excellent.

Maybe as induction to many local jobs we should all experience working there to learn how to maintain people's dignity in stressful situations. So I am concerned to learn the Post Shop and Kiwi Bank is moving to co-locate to the Pharmacy Building in the Flaxmere Village. I will be interested to see if the same level of customer service is maintained or this is in effect a "downsizing" of Flaxmere Post Shop. Time will tell. I will keep you posted.

But on to the long weekend. Goobs and I plan to return to Mountain Valley Camping Ground on the Mohaka River for a break. We cannot believe we have not been there earlier being regular travellers to and from Taupo. Our camping list is emailed back and forth between the two of us as we prepare for our trip. It's a long list when taking into account food, beverages, gas cooker, kiwi sizzler BBQ, a frost pot with diesel in case it gets cold. Our host Doug provides us with a wilderness spot a kilometre from the main camping area.

"Our spot' is booked for a wedding. All week we check out the weather forecast which doesn't look too flash. The first time we camped at Mountain Valley Camping in our new (secondhand) pinto camper trailer it rained the whole time. And it was cold. But we loved it. So we make the decision that the only deterrent will be if there are weather warnings. Who knows what the weather will bring? We will be prepared for anything. Goobs, an electrician by trade, has generator, headlamps, torches, lighting, solar panels, battery, music, a gas shower, a water storage vessel and his much beloved blind 15-year-old fox terrier Tosh. I have my two dogs, Tang and Nemo. The dogs love it. We love it. And with no phone reception - even the compulsion of checking one's phone every 15 minutes disappears.

The camp site is busy with setting up our gear, which takes more than two hours to set up; meals to prepare, fires to light, dishes, tidying up, lovely hot (gas) showers, visits around the camp site "with a drink at the bar in the evening with our host Doug who fills us in with the wedding arrangements, the aftermath of the rain three weeks ago and improvements he is making to the site.

Doug with an army background is capable and almost gruff on first impressions but we enjoy his company. He shares we are the first to camp at the 'wilderness camp' which is right on the river and private. The road down is steep and not for the faint hearted "definitely a four-wheel drive access "no sweat to the Mitsubishi Triton and our camper trailer.

We have two helicopters fly over head during our time "one to deliver the bride and one to deliver someone from Huka Lodge who arrives to horse trek. While my best intentions were to have a horse trek somehow the day was gone and we were again preparing our dinner.

What was also important was that we rested up, read books, enjoyed the surroundings and were mesmerised by the sound of the Mohaka River. On our last night, Goobs and I took in the full moon and night sky, looked at each other and agreed we love simple things in life and laugh.

-Ana Apatu is chief executive of the U-Turn Trust, based at Te Aranga Marae in Flaxmere.