Life as a casual worker at Kinloch Lodge

Staying at Kinloch Lodge and never want to leave? Or travelling through New Zealand and looking for an awesome place to work?

Well luckily for you Kinloch is looking for hard-working, honest, reliable casual staff to support our family-run business.

Sound like you? 

Here's what life is like as a casual member of staff at Kinloch Lodge.

Casual staff Camille, Marie, Emily and Jack in winter 2018

The place

Kinloch Lodge is a successful accommodation business offering everything from YHA backpacker digs, to budget double rooms, cosy Heritage hideaways and luxury retreats in our beautiful Ecoscape chalets.

We have an onsite restaurant and bar which caters for breakfast, lunch and dinner all year round.

We are situated at the north-west tip of Lake Wakatipu - about a 1 hr 15 min drive from Queenstown and a 20 minute (26 km) drive from the little town of Glenorchy. We are the closest accommodation to the start of Routeburn Track (18km) - a NZ Great Walk - as well as the popular Greenstone/Caples Track (12 km). 

In Glenorchy we also run a small café - The Trading Post - and a B&B called the Lake House. 

In the summer we also operate a kayak tour business (Kayak Kinloch) from the wharf opposite our restaurant.

We strive to give our customer's the best standards of service possible and expect our staff to support this ethos.

The Work

We need staff for all sorts of different jobs depending on the time of year. 

Roles can range from cleaning and making beds to general maintenance, help with marketing or front of house of work.

We run a busy on-site restaurant and occasionally need staff to help with the service of our valued customers. 

There is also our café The Trading Post - 26 km away in Glenorchy - which needs friendly faces with outgoing personalities to serve locals and tourists our range of delicious coffee and baked treats.

If you have a specialist skill - maybe you are an experienced tradesperson, an excellent writer or a social-media guru - then your skills could be put to great use too. There's always work to be done!

Emily, a casual staff worker in winter 2018, working at The Trading Post

 The deal

All our casual staff are employed on the same contract. 

Employees are expected to work at least four hours a day in exchange for all meals, a warm bed and access to all the Kinloch Lodge facilities (more on that later) for every night they stay at Kinloch Lodge.

Days off can be arranged and organised to fit around the workload and other staff - no problem.

So if you want to head out onto the track for the day, no sweat - just organise you day-off well in advance.

If you want to stay somewhere else overnight (maybe in a hut on the trail or you fancy a night in Queenstown) during you stay, then you won't be required to work the minimum four hours for that day.

But again, days off must be arranged in advance.

Every hour worked beyond the minimum daily requirement is paid at an hourly rate above the minimum wage threshold.

Staff are expected to stay a minimum of three works. 

There is no maximum length of stay - some of our staff have loved it so much they have stayed for months.

The benefits

There are plenty benefits to working at Kinloch Lodge.

Every night, staff are given a hot meal cooked by our in-house chefs.

Staff have access to our lake-view hot tub, free use of our mountain bikes and kayaks and get discount in our on-site restaurant, bar, café, shop and over at The Trading Post.

Oh, and you can call one of the most beautiful parts of New Zealand - which is 1 hr 15 min drive from Queenstown - home for a while. Not bad, eh?

But one of the best things about working is the camaraderie between staff. 

Many of our casual workers meet friends for life while working here and although the work might be a little hard at times - we get super busy in the summertime - there're still plenty of opportunities to have fun.

Our lake-view hot-tub is free for staff to use

The bosses

Couple John and Toni have owned and run Kinloch Lodge since 2000.

Since then, they have devoted their lives to growing their business whilst raising their young family.

They have three children; James, Lucy and Sam. Two dogs; Wilbert and Holly, guinea-pigs and chickens.

They appreciate hard-working, reliable, honest staff who are looking for a unique experience in arguably the most beautiful part of New Zealand.

Kinloch Lodge - it's not a bad place to call home