Volunteering at a Roadside Hotel
To save cash in price gouging New Zealand we had to have a similar approach as we did for Australia…which involved a fair amount of last minute planning so we could be as flexible as possible for pop-up vehicle relocations and housesits. And in the meantime, we were able to fill in a five-night gap with the best experience we’ve had yet with HelpX.
HelpX, similar to Woofing or Workaway, is a cultural experience which trades volunteering in exchange for accommodation, and often food. Experiences can include farm stays, home stays, English teaching, hostels/hotels or other help. This one took us to the Beaumont Hotel & Holiday Park, which is a rural historic hotel dated from the 1930s plopped on the fringe of the lengthy and undulating Clutha Gold cyclist trail.
We chose it because back in 2018, some of you might know, we had a vision of opening a rural Bed & Brew(ery) “somewhere in the world. ”Though this is not an aspiration we still have (we spent our seed money on property that instead brings us passive income!), we still thought it would be fun to volunteer in this environment…especially in a country where we speak the language.
The Beaumont Hotel is located about 3 hours east of Queenstown, seemingly dropped in the middle of nowhere. Despite this, during New Zealand’s summer high season, it was often packed with thirsty travelers spilling in from the cycle path, or road tripping through the South Island. The mix was predominantly locals and Europeans, almost exclusively of German or French origin.
It’s owned by Kiwi Alison and Icelander Guni who we only got to work with a day before they left for an offsite wedding. The friendly staff did a great job filling their shoes, including the cooks Dez and Sarah, their son, Petur, and American server, Amber.
With an Icelandic dad and a Kiwi mom, Petur hit the jackpot with his passport situation. He spent his first 14 years in Iceland before moving to New Zealand and is now helping out his parents with the business, though he had just returned from a year of travel in South America, among other places.
Petur is the one who picked up we two hobos on the side of the road when we were dropped off by the bus at another (closed) roadside motel, now private Māori residence, in a “town” called Rae’s Junction. In fact, the town was virtually that…a junction. It was located in a place where the land had transformed radically since we left Queenstown, surrounded by blue bell skies and rolling scrubby brown hills, now desperate for a drink of rain.
Our less than 3-hour chariot from Queenstown to Rae’s Junction was on the bus line called Intercity, which we got for the “bargain” price of $58/two tickets because we purchased in advance. It didn’t take us long to realize the buses are extortionately priced in NZ and why everyone gets rental cars. But, this just didn’t make sense the first half of our time because we were staying in places for more extended periods.
When we arrived to Beaumont Hotel, Petur showed us to our shoebox cabin, where we’d be staying. We’d get intimately familiar with these little rooms, as we’d soon be disrobing them. We liked the cabins, as they were tucked away from the bar, in our own little piece of paradise, but Alison had to relocate us due to the hotel due to reservations.
Once we were settled in room one, we checked out the bar/restaurant which undeniably felt…country.
But instead of illuminated Budweiser signs, big-breasted lady calendars, and gun racks on the walls as you’d likely see in such a place in the States, we instead encountered creepy stuffed boar heads, Speights taps (their national beer), and a reminder that the bartender is always right. Oh, and swatters in case we met any assholes. (We didn’t…probably because the bartenders but them in their places.)
It was here we settled in for our first choice of 10 meals from the restaurant’s menu…which definitely tasted “All-American” in that regard. (Fortunately breakfasts we had healthier, grocery-based options available! 🤣)
Fortunately, we stayed pretty active because the mountains of food and alcohol we got “paid” with were quite…pubby. 🤣 Ah yes…these were the kind of sandwiches you nearly get lock jaw trying to maneuver into your meat hole. They were then topped with a carnivalesque ring toss because the cross cut chip mound wasn’t enough fried geometrics…obvi.
But OMG, was Greg’s apricot/chicken/cranberry and Mandy’s pumpkin/feta veggie burger DELICIOUS. But oh-what-a-disaster. 🤣 We cannot remember the last time we had grub like this. Not to mention, it was free!!
Needless to say, our stomachs protested so it didn’t take Mandy long to find something healthier on the menu and a grilled chicken salad became our dinner go-to, while we still pummeled our guts for lunch with pizzas, fish and chips, and burgers…
…which got even more goaded by whatever alcoholic selections sloshed down. Thank god we didn’t stay here longer than 5 nights, but yes the “payment” was quite sufficient. 🤣
So, by how you might be wondering what we possibly did to earn such caloric intake. For four hours, mostly in the mornings, we would wash dishes, schlep beer, hedge bushes…
…flip rooms, scrub the urinal trough in the camp bathroom (Greg only because Mandy proclaimed that she did not have the right body parts for that kind of activity), restock the bar…
…mop floors, mow grass in the beer garden, dust…
…and making beds. During this time, we also confirmed many things were true that we’ve heard about hotels including you probably shouldn’t get it on atop the comforter (because they’re rarely cleaned), nor snuggle up with small decorative pillows. And yes, it’s true…the remote control is most likely far ickier than the toilet bowl.
One task we didn’t have to do is vacuum because they had a robot named Larry whose favorite food was luckily fries and bun crumbs grounded into the floor.
It was really fun to be in this environment again. At one point Mandy even jumped in and bused some tables when the servers got overwhelmed, which took her back to her serving days and gave her the chance to chat with the locals. The difference is in New Zealand, no one was working for tips because they make ~$25 NZ ($14/hour) and Mandy was working for…uh…wine.
Over the weekend, there was an antique car show in nearby Lawrence which brought in all kinds of cars…and characters. Now that too was a fun experience….turns out, they’re not much different than Americans of this type!
When We Weren’t Cleaning Urinals…
When we weren’t lining our intestines with piles of pub grub, or doing glamorous tasks like making urinals and kitchen floors sparkle, we had plenty of things to keep us busy, and fortunately active, for a few days during our HelpX volunteer experience at Beaumont Hotel & Holiday Park.
Although its remote location was limited, we had full access to a couple of mountain bikes which allowed access to the winding 73k long (45 miles) Clutha Gold Cycling Trail. This allowed us to fully immerse ourselves in the serene and rolling New Zealand countryside, and naturally…led to some fun discoveries.
One of our favorite discoveries was this swimming hole, which was right on the edge of the crystal clear drifting waters of the Clutha River. This river is the longest river on the South Island and just looking at its pristine waters makes you want to audibly sigh. However, you need to be quite careful if you decide to enter because the currents are quite swift.
Today, Beaumont holds no commercial sites other than the very hotel we were staying at. Nature has taken over many of the older abandoned homes in this former gold mining town, which bustled at its peak from 1913 to 1921. That nature includes the sheep. Lots of them. When you meet your first fluffy little lamb in New Zealand, it’s quite entertaining to watch them. But before long, the novelty wears off because there are literally five times more sheep than people in the country at 24.4 million.
The elaborate pedestrian and cyclist bridge which led us from the hotel to the trail. The trail structure was quite impressive. Apparently much of it is new since 2020, when COVID starting bringing locals to the trails en masse.
It even has helpful informational plaques periodically dropped upon it and is absolutely tranquil.
And the spring-like weather couldn’t have been more perfect, though it did get hot as we cycled along due to the intense sun, which made stripping down for the swimming holes a welcome activity. As you can see, there were very few trees. The terrain reminded us a lot of Eastern Oregon.
The cemetery in the town of Beaumont was truly like stepping back in time.
Minus the Little Free Library with titles like “How to meet a Man on the Internet” we found.
This is THE place to go if you have insomnia. So many sheep to count. When we weren’t gallivanting, we had plenty of time to be “digi” nomads in the beer garden.
Exploring the South Island…in a Borrowed Hotel Van
During our volunteer stint at the Beaumont Hotel & Holiday Park, they were quite good to us. In addition to the cozy room, piles of food and alcohol we got in exchange for our efforts, they also let us borrow their jazzy hotel van to go exploring one day after our shift. Since it was still early in our time in NZ, we had encountered little and were eager to check things out, continuing to realize repeatedly just how much the South Island reminded us of parts of the Pacific Northwest (USA). From the picturesque lighthouses, the vast grey beaches, and the rugged cliffs, it felt like our former home. Some differences, however, were the layers of shimmering teal blended within the waters, the unusual name which probably only Spanish speakers might find amusing, and the chance of meeting amber-eyed penguins.
Oh, and we also locked eyes with the Southern Ocean for the very first time…
Nugget Point, in the Southeast of the country, is one of New Zealand’s most iconic lookouts, packaged with a historic lighthouse from 1870 which rests like a sentinel over some fetching craggy cliffs and name-inspiring rocks. It’s a short, but semi-steep, 1.8k walk from the parking lot. The moss-covered nuggets were tossed like toys in the sea with some sheltered coves which looked ripe for scuba diving, thanks to its transparent waters.
While catching whiffs of a nearby group of Spaniards brewing coffee with their camp stove, we also spotted some seals who may or may not be interested in sharing their territory with those scuba divers.
And despite the overcast skies, the views were still spectacular. It was quite surreal to be gazing into the Southern Ocean knowing that we could sail to Antarctica in less than 2000 miles. It was Shangri-La…at least if you’re a seal.
After visiting the lighthouse, we paused at the Roaring Bay Penguin and Seal Observatory on the way back down, where a large sign reminds dog owners that their buddies are not welcome. We noticed these signs are sprinkled everywhere throughout the country. The kiwis (some of them anyhow) are trying desperately to conserve their wildlife.
In fact, you are not even allowed to go down to the beach, but need to stay in an elevated and confined human box to keep we assholes from disturbing them.
However, we were welcome to check them out via slitted windows. Unfortunately, we were not destined to see the yellow-eyed penguins on that day. In fact, not many people are seeing the penguins at all these days. As of the 2024-2025 season, there are only two penguins left and no chicks, while in 2001 the colony bore at least 50. Tragically, their food source has been nearly depleted due to the nearby waters being overfished. These penguins are among the world’s rarest, with an estimated 4k left.
Heading off the cliff toward the beaches near Kaka Point, which also have an aura of Ireland.
Kaka refers to the native bird, which is a large brown bush parrot indigenous in the area, not poo in espanol.
Our chariot for the day…the official Beaumont Hotel van, which when we went to fill it up, we had challenges diagnosing if it should be done so with diesel or unleaded petrol. After raiding the van looking for a manual, or some indication of what was correct, we Chat GPT’ed the make and model, which indicated that both could apply, depending on the engine. Huh? Because our phone didn’t work for calls, we headed into the gas station and asked to use a real phone to call the hotel. Not knowing which parts of the number needed to be dialled for the local call, foreigner Mandy asked the Gen Z cashier for help, who also had no clue how to use a landline phone and had to call her Boomer supervisor for assistance.
Pausing in the slightly ghostly town of Balclutha…Nothing was open, nor were any people walking about. But, it did have a quite vibrant bee box mural.
After that, we headed into Woolworth’s to get some fruit, so we could add a little nutrition to our pub grub, where you can get your groceries delivered directly to your boot.
On the way back, we learned the art of crossing the thousand of one-way bridges throughout the island. The side who has the red arrow must stop and wait for the other side to pass through.
We also stopped at the 1896 Tuapeka Mouth Ferry, which remarkably still operates from 10 am-2 pm everyday to traverse the Clutha River. The precarious car ferry, which we’re not sure we’d trust a tic-tac on, much less a behemoth passenger van, carries one vehicle across at a time using a rope attached to a pulley cord. Wow. Unfortunately(?), we arrived well outside of the operating hours.
