Great weekend.......

What an exiting weekend! Firstly a massive congratulations to the Kiwi League team on their win in the 4 Nations tournament, it's always great to claw one back on the Ozzy's. What a spectacular result.

We had Samantha and Gerrard Stone from Brisbane, Australia staying with us, two avid league supporters watching the game intensely on Saturday only to walk out of the bar with their tail between the legs, however i am sure they enjoyed their night with the locals.

MacDow and Pete Davies 50th went off at Paroa Hotel in superb style with many commenting on the great food.

Greymouth has been reeling in some great weather which has meant that the Christchurch holiday destination of Lake Brunner has been packed with people over their Anniversary Holiday.

What a weekend ahead

At Paroa we had good crowds in watching all the games. It is heading into the last days of Whitebaiting and the whitebait is starting to run which is making the locals and tourists alike happy. This week we have had people staying with us from Thailand, Germany, Slovakia and England, some great people that are enjoying the sun on the West Coast. Greymouth has been streaming with tourists lately making their way south to the Glaciers or north to the Pancake Rocks.

This weekend we have got two functions, on Friday McConnell Dowell have their end of year work function on, which is a superb night every year. On the Saturday we have got Pete Davies 50th on which again should be a cracker.

With a lot of sporting events on, All balcks v Scotland and the Kangaroo's v The Kiwi's it should be a great weekend.

Last weeks results, well the English played very well in the rugby and managed to spoil the All Blacks with their endeavors to put a big score on the poms at Twickenham. The game may have some what been dampened by Kevin Mealamu's head butt. The Kangaroo's league team pumped the Kiwi's in what was a nothing game, leading into the Four Nations final this weekend.

Sports New Zealand

Canterbury the winners over Waikato but the All Blacks should be available to play our National final  ITM Cup
Go All Blacks against the Poms and the Kiwis against the Kangaroos today.
New Zealand rowers are just awesome, its been great watching.

Whitebait season

Today is the opening of whitebait season for the entire West Coast, we have a number of people that come into Paroa Hotel that are avid whitebaiters and often take time off work to start catching what is known to coasters as "white gold". Last year the going rate was around $60 a kg it will be interesting to see what it will be this year. The Saltwater Creek which is located right next to Paroa Hotel will more than likely have quite a few whitebaiters in the river. The main rivers around Greymouth that will contain whitebaiters is The Grey River and The Taramakau River.

Gamble Free Day

Today around New Zealand is "Gamble free day", at Paroa Hotel we have 5 pokie machines. I have read an sad story in The Press today of a woman who gambled away her entire fortune, including her house. She is calling for pokie machines to be taken away from pubs. This is probably a fair statement from her considering what has happened to her. However I do believe that there is a need for gambling, I say this because if we wern't to have pokie machines in our hotel then it would be a great disadvantage to us because people would go to another venue where there are pokie machines. If pokie machines were taken out of circulation of all pubs then people would just start going to casino's and if they were taken from casino's then there would be another form of gambling that would step in place of pokie machines. It is in human nature to gamble and I don't think that a change will take away this need for people to gamble. There are many factors and preventable avenues that are placed in front of gamblers every time they step into a gaming room or play a pokie machine. These methods that are in place are helping to stamp out problem gambling and pokie machine turnover is decreasing rapidly. However there are a lot of people that enjoy going to a pub and putting an amount of money in a machine and seeing what happens, they get a thrill from it and if they win then great, they don't necessarily have a problem but see it as having a bit of fun, and there is still a need for this. Hotels also don't make much money at all from pokie machines, in fact most of the money goes to the government or back to the community. Personally I would like to see the pokie machines out of our hotel, the time effort and everything else that goes with pokie machines are not worth having them, however by not having them is detrimental to Paroa Hotel.

Introduction

My name is Alan Monk, I am 25 years of age and am currently the manager at Paroa Hotel. My parents are owners of the hotel and Paroa Hotel has been in our family now for the last 55 years. A bit of background on me, I grew up in Greymouth and when I was in year 9 went to St Bedes College in Christchurch. After leaving school I worked for a year and played a bit of rugby, went flatting and had a bit of fun. I attended Lincoln University and completed a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Valuation and Property Management. From here I spent a year in Queenstown as a financial advisor, my parents told me that they were going to sell the hotel and if I didn't come back to take the place over it would be sold, so here I am. This blog is really going to be a bit about running a hotel, a few things that I deal with on a daily basis but also what is going on in and around the hotel and also Greymouth. please enjoy this blog and you are welcome to make comments, its just a bit of fun so don't take things to seriously.