Garbage Man to Safety General Manager

I'm the General Manager Safety & Environmental Risk at Ruapehu Alpine Lifts. My responsibilities include health & safety for workers, safety for guests and safety for place - so how we manage the environmental risk which is waste, hazardous substances and projects.

Ruapehu Alpine Lifts is a part of the Tourism industry because that's our whole purpose for being here - to bring people to this amazing place and share it with them. It was founded to provide access to the mountains. We are a year-round operation. Obviously, people know us for our winter operation, but during summers it’s a great place to come and hike and check things out.

I didn't know I'd end up where I am today - I studied geology in university - but I knew I wanted to be in the ski industry and I had to work my way through it. I started originally as a Garbage Man, picking up rubbish from different restaurants and taking it to the depot down the hill. And I've come full circle! 25 years later I'm still picking up rubbish, but it's cool - I'm looking after the environment. That role helped me understand the background logistics of the operation, which was really useful. From there I moved into ski patrol for a few years, ended up as a manager for the team and then progressed into the role now which oversees both patrol teams on both sites, the medical centres and the environmental risk.

What's not to love? It's an awesome place - it's not just the obvious stuff that people would think about like working with the snow, great people and a cool environment. Ruapehu is like no other mountain I've seen. It's hugely challenging and in my 21 years here there's never been a dull moment, not even a dull second. It's enabled us to live in a really cool place, raise our kids in a really cool place, be outside as much as possible, and work with great people.

Skiing's my thing. I try to hit the slopes as much as possible. Would love to do it every day but 4-5 days a week is probably what I end up achieving. So, my best experience is a day we call "Fat Tuesday". We had a huge amount of snow which didn't require much avalanche control, and a lot of the regional roads were closed so not many customers were able to get here. It was an opportunity to ski on an empty mountain which is etched in my memory.

Ruapehu is such an awesome training ground for people. You get opportunities here before you would elsewhere because there's a healthy churn of people through. Many people have gone on from Ruapehu Alpine Lifts to amazing things from climbing Everest to other ski industries around the world to… you name it.

Just do it. Get a job - doesn't matter what job - just get involved. Get up here, meet the people, get some experience and work out what part of the job you want to progress into. Do everything - it all helps build the experience for whatever you might do in the future.