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.