Karl Christensen: Ohakune business owner on the closure of Desert Road

Ohakune is basking in the closure of Desert Road, as businesses are reaping the benefits of a detour. 

The Mountain Rocks Café & Bar owner Karl Christensen said his business hasn't been so busy since post-lockdown. 

"We've got this flow of traffic, nose to tail through town most of the time, and it's just blown us away really," he said.

Maintenance is projected to take two months.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The closure of the Desert Road has been pretty sweet
for Orcune, with two months worth of road maintenance underway
and still to come. Businesses on the Deed Tour are
pumping with the extra traffic. The famous chocolate the Clear Shop,
if you've ever been there, it's really good, reportedly selling
eleven hundred of them a day. Carl Christensen is with
the Mountain Rocks Owakuni. He's the owner. Cal Welcome to

(00:23):
the show. Good to have you on here. When was
the last time you guys were this busy?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Probably twenty thirteen and then straight up to lockdown. I
guess when everyone went mad when they were released from
their jungles, up from the jails.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
I mean, how busy are you?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Well, yeah, we're probably as busy as busiest winter. Yeah,
sort of situation. But steady. It's kind of you all week,
all week long. So it's just steady float as you know,
with the traffic. It's a captured market, so we've got
this flow perfect, those details through town most of the time.

(01:05):
And yeah, it's just burn it's away. Really. We expected
you know, maybe a thirty yeah, twenty five thirty percent
increase in sales. That has been more like a sixty
to seventy five percent increase in there's been a real boom,
especially after what we've been through this year.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Do you have enough staff because a lot of people
said that they were surprised that the road was going
to be closed for so long. Were you surprised? Are
you guys get up for this?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Well? I think you know, as we spoke earlier in
the year about staffing shortages, we're still not open probably
nights anymore. We're extended our hours to seven seven pm
or Thursday, Friday and Saturday. But yeah, we're still very
short staffed on those skilled positions, i e. Chefs for risters,
so a lot of those positions have dried up, so

(01:55):
we're still pretty short that way. But our hours, we've
just limited them to manage if we have and we're
just lucky. We've got great staff.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
We've got issues with the ski that you know, the
mountain opening, we've got the chateau being shuttered. Basically, are
you are you sort of feeling good right now? But
knowing that there's a hard road down down the line.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Oh, we we know that this is this is just
an interim sort of stay of execution. If you'd like them,
but yeah, it's great. Well, the opportunity for us is
to showcase ourselves to those people who haven't been here before,
because look, I'm speaking to as many as I can,
you know, in between making coffee and and a lot
of them haven't been this way. It's surprising so many

(02:35):
New Ylanders that have never been off State Higway one
when it comes to woo. So it's a real challenge
for us to try and capture those people. Say to them,
this is this is an alternative if you if you're
traveling to Auckland, you don't have to travel State Hiwai
one all the time. So it's an opportunity, I guess
for us to try and get that Avengers and Spirit
and the Kiwis to come the other way. And I

(02:56):
think that's the big bonus. I think they're seeing little
things here that they enjoy. They like what they see,
they see We've got things to do, so we're going
to promote ourselves. So we've got that eight week window
to promote ourselves.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
And cal people are loving joys scones.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
They love them. They're delicious. She's actually a gym. You know,
we're very lucky. Yeah, she makes what did you call
it for what did you call it? Delicious?

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Delicious?

Speaker 2 (03:21):
That's what we call it, delicious.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
That's cal Carl. Thank you for that, Carl Christensen. The
Mountain Rocks in ol coney Go and get one of
Joy's scones. They sound delicious. For more from the Mic
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