24 hours in the life of Sonya Goodall

Sonya Goodall and her partner Greg Adams have been running Wanderer Backpackers in Evans St for nearly eight years.

WE'RE up and showered by 7, 7.30am, and go over to the backpackers to do general cleaning. We can't do the toilets, showers, laundry or kitchen until people leave. So we clean out the fridge, empty the dishwasher, the rubbish, vacuum the areas that are vacant, restock tea, coffee, sugar, toilet paper, and open the living room windows to air.

People start leaving anywhere from 7.30am, right up to checkout time at 10am. They generally want to talk – about how much they've loved Timaru and New Zealand – and also want advice on what to do in Timaru if they're staying a few days.

Then you get the ones travelling on; they want information on where to go, how long it takes, and we take time out to help plan their route. All this can take up to lunchtime. Then the clean-up begins.

I start with the laundry – we do it all ourselves – then move on to making up beds, cleaning the toilets and showers and kitchen. All this is worked around taking bookings, phone inquiries and picking up people from the bus station. We do free pick-ups and drop-offs to the bus as well as for any hitchhikers.

People usually start arriving any time from 10am through to around 8pm, although we find in winter they are usually here by around 5.30, before it is too cold and late. But in summer, with daylight saving, they usually arrive later, anything up to 10.30pm.

As soon as people arrive they generally want to know where is the closest supermarket, restaurant and pub. You also get the ones who arrive at 1 or 2 in the morning looking for accommodation, although thankfully not that often, and there are also the ones who arrive when you're in bed and the "no vacancy" sign is out.

When there is a break in the day I zip out to get supplies – cleaners, tea, coffee, etc, for the backpackers and street maps from the i-Site. In my free time I try to do a bit of book work, GST and statistics, so that you don't have a huge pile at the end of the month. The statistics are a general record of how many people stayed with us during the month, how many nights they were with us, and where they are from.

I run the backpackers fulltime and Greg works at his building business fulltime. At the end of the day, around 5 to 6pm, when Greg is home, he takes over the backpackers and I do our evening meal, prepare lunches. So although we both continue to work, it is a break from the day for both of us.

In the evenings and weekends we both do the backpackers. In between all this, I have our place to fit in – meals, laundry, cleaning, groceries; walking the dog and going to the gym.

We don't have a set weekend as such. If you're travelling, time is of no consequence, so we try to take time out whenever we can. We might have a quiet day on a Wednesday so we might zip up to Tekapo for a soak in the hot pools, then back home, or we might have time to go out for a coffee in town. We just take any opportunity we can.

Winter is definitely our quieter period, but we still get people travelling. Our prime customers are international travellers. We made a conscious decision early on to make that our target market, rather than go for the local boarding hostel situation. We do, however, have a lot of sales reps stay with us on a regular basis, sports teams, and also different people who come to Timaru to work short term.

We are very careful who we take as we take seriously our responsibility to our guests to ensure they have an enjoyable stay. We're not a party house or a doss house. We have two strict rules: pay before you stay, and photo ID.

It's a very busy but social lifestyle. We're always having guests who want to talk and shout us a drink, duty free. It can be difficult. You don't want to say no, but you are still working, and you have to explain that one really [is enough], thank you.

We have found backpacking has no age or social standing boundaries. Our oldest customer has been 85 years old – a lovely lady from the UK travelling by herself. It was her first time out of England, and she decided if she didn't do it now she never would. We have also had a millionaire with us. As he said, what's the point of a motel unit so you are by yourself. He finds at a backpackers he has lots of interesting people around, but if he wants privacy, he can disappear to his own room.

I would say to have a backpackers, you definitely need to be a people person. We probably make it harder on ourselves. A lot of backpackers [establishments] show you your room, give you a key and a map and that's it. We decided you can't skip the "bad parts" like cleaning the toilets and the odd horrible person, so we aren't going to miss out on the good parts – the people – which is why we spend the time with them.

We usually find out about people, get them talking, and if they have a birthday we buy them a small present and card and a birthday cake. It's a very simple, small gesture, but it really seems to mean a lot when you are so far from home.

If we have people here and there are local events on, like a wine and food festival, or the Fairlie Show, we often take them with us. At Christmas we put on a barbecue and supply the meat. Greg goes out hunting and diving, so we usually have venison, paua and fish, and say to anyone here to join in and bring anything they want to contribute to share. We've had some great get-togethers.

We have a lot of return visitors which is great. We now have friends all over the world who we keep in contact with. Earlier today a letter arrived from Scotland from a man who stayed with us, and Fred, a German man who has stayed with us, called in.

Quite often you get busy cleaning up and you just want to finish, so you end up working through and either eating at 2pm or 3pm, or skipping lunch altogether. As the afternoon moves to evening, by the time you book people in, and then do an evening clean-up of kitchens and bathrooms to keep them in order, often the evening meal can be 9 to 9.30pm. By the time you eat, clear up, book in late arrivals, it can easily be 11pm to 11.30pm.

We have Pepe, a young Bichon Frise, who's a huge hit with our guests. They make a fuss of him, take him for walks and he's a bit of a celebrity, featuring in a lot of photos. A lot of people comment that it really makes them feel at home, as they have a dog they miss.

Greg often takes people out when he's hunting, so they go along for a walk armed with a camera. They get to see some of the animals and the countryside that they wouldn't normally. Some of the photos they get are amazing and they are absolutely rapt to have this experience.

One thing we have found is that Murphy's Law always seems to strike. We can have a quiet morning – no phone calls, no tourists. But the minute we sit down to lunch, someone arrives. Or we are going to a movie or out for a meal, and the same thing. It can be quiet, but as soon as we go to leave, someone arrives. It's amazing, but you can just about bet on it, and it has become a bit of a joke with friends and family because we are always late for things, and it's true.

We've both always worked with people. Greg in the building industry – both as a builder and a building inspector, and I worked mostly in an office environment, including several years with a big company in Auckland.

We're coming up eight years with our backpackers and we still love it. Every day is different, it's very challenging at times, and very rewarding. It gives you a lovely feeling to have these young travellers from different countries hugging you goodbye and saying you have been just like their mother.

I work for a few hours on Saturdays for Heather Smythe who owns Anna S. It provides a break away from daily routine, so I'm not working at the backpackers seven days a week. Greg takes over at the backpackers for those few hours.

We love working in the tourism and hospitality industry and hope to be doing so until we retire. We currently have the business for sale, as we're hoping to pursue another venture.

Neither of us have done anything like this before. We sort of thought, oh well, if it fails, we can live in it, it can be a house, or we can tenant it. But it really took off.

We're often asked if there's any particular nationality that we don't like, but there isn't. There are good ones and bad ones from every country, but we can say that everyone we've had from Canada and from France, there's not been one surly, sour, stick-to-themselves person. They've been nothing but lovely.

Have we travelled? Yes. Greg's been to Fiji and I've been to Australia. This really has given us an insight, and we firmly believe New Zealand is one of the best countries in the world, and Timaru in particular. We have got everything – we are so lucky.

- © Fairfax NZ News