Anita Lewis - Queen of the smile
She was the joyful, welcoming face of Skyline for 23 years, her bright hazel eyes and wide, beaming smile calming many a nervous tourist after they stepped off a hairy gondola ride.
Anita Lewis was Queenstown’s star of hospitality in her heyday. Any tourism staff needing tips on how to welcome guests needed look no further.
That special gift was reflected in several prestigious awards during her time working Skyline’s Kiwi Magic, and then Kiwi Haka, ticketing desks. In 1997 Anita won the Telecom Hospitality Personality of the Year Award at the Queenstown Hospitality Awards. In 2001 she was presented with Queenstown Rotary’s Pride of Workmanship Award. “I loved my job meeting all the visitors and locals, and working with a great team,” she says, seven years after retiring at 73.
Renowned for going the extra mile, Anita started out at Skyline Gondola’s gift shop part-time in 1994. The customers wanted an inexpensive gift to take home so she wrote a children’s picture book, ‘The Teddies Visit Queenstown’, celebrating local adventure activities. She even sent a copy to Prince George, receiving a lovely thank you letter in return. Two more kids’ books followed.
Born in Holland in 1942 during World War II, her Belgian grandparents ran a knitting factory which they moved to Holland. During the war Anita spent a lot of time with her grandparents in Belgium. “There was a moat around our village and in winter we’d skate to school. I had a happy childhood,” says Anita.
When she was eight her parents were sponsored by a Dutch share-milking couple near Christchurch and immigrated to New Zealand with four kids in tow, aged one to nine. It was a month-long sailing, however, 1951 dock strikes in Wellington meant they were stuck until a day ferry got them to Lyttelton. It took 18 months for their prefabricated house to arrive so the family stayed in a cottage with the sharemilking couple in Belfast for six months. “There were six of us in a room and Mum learned English by reading the newspaper,” recalls Anita. Four adults and seven kids somehow all packed into the farm owner’s Model T Ford with the picnic basket tied on the back. An amazing teacher, also a speech therapist, and school immersion, meant the kids learned English quickly.
St Mary’s College high school years in Christchurch were strict. “We weren’t allowed outside the gate without gloves and a hat on, summer too. There was no talking to boys on street corners, so we met several streets away.”
A prefect and librarian, Anita won the school’s Commercial Cup, then worked at the Public Trust as a legal department typist stenographer, saving money for her OE. Her mother, and sister, a baby, sailed with her to England on The Fair Sea, to stay with Dutch relatives, Anita staying on for 18 months. She worked in England at Bing Harris and Co, attending magnificent shows at the London Palladium – The Black And White Minstrel Show a stand-out. “My grandfather didn’t want me to leave so he secretly applied for a job for me in Brussels as an English shorthand typist. I travelled an hour by train each day.” Her grandfather shouted her many trips and took her on a restaurant and pub crawl for her 21st.
After a brave three-day stopover alone in New York on the way home, Anita was working in her dad’s Christchurch knitwear store when a regular customer, an air hostess, convinced her she’d be a good one herself. After training in Wellington she launched into “an amazing career” as an air hostess for NAC, the national domestic airline. “I absolutely loved it, flying in DC3’s, Friendships and Viscounts. There was a lot more time to talk to passengers back then.” That was until an overnight stopover in Invercargill where she met her accountant husband, Bill Lewis, on a blind date at a Roman party. Anita was dressed in a toga. She moved back to her parent’s home to save money and they were married five months after meeting in 1966. Anita had to quit her job. “Married women couldn’t be NAC air hostesses back then.”
Five kids followed - for a brief 10 days she had four under four, and the family had many happy years on 1.2ha (3 acres) at Waikiwi, surrounded by ponies, sheep, pigs and chickens. With Bill president of the Southland Rugby Union and an accountant, Anita was roped in as secretary for both. She became president of the local Plunket Society and served at the kids’ kindy.
Prior to Bill semi-retiring and their move to Queenstown in 1990, Anita was caregiver in a rest-home, a job she loved and continued locally, including for the widow of Dr Bill Anderson, Molly Anderson, who lived until 102.
A two-year foray into Queenstown business with a friend during the early 1990s was “a great, social success and a financial disaster”, laughs Anita. Bodyline featured Queenstown’s first ‘Fit and Firm’ beds, sunbeds and aromatherapy.
Then followed Skyline where she found her niche.
Turning 80 this week isn’t slowing Anita down. She’s part of Altrusa Queenstown and its school reading programme, volunteers at the CanShop in Frankton, is learning Te Reo, and is an active member of the local RSA and St Peter’s Church. However, pride of place is family, some of whom live locally. “I’m very blessed to have 12 beautiful grandchildren,” she beams.
