Simon Hayes - Kiwi can do, Aussie can too

Brought up on Aussie Rules in a small rural town on the Murray River, Simon Hayes had no clue about rugby when he arrived in New Zealand at 21, fresh from a trainee manager’s role at Myers Food and Catering in 1974.

Thrown in the deep end as barman in Franz Josef, on his first day government-regulated beer prices increased from 46 to 48 cents a jug. “Every bugger came in and thought it was me. They weren’t happy,” Simon grins. “The following week someone said this fella I was serving was an All Black. I’d never seen a game of rugby and had no idea who they were,” he says. “I quickly learned.”

That wasn’t all the young hospitality graduate had to learn, Simon transferring to THC Te Anau for two months, into the thick of the deer recovery industry “helicopter wars”. “The public bar was 100m in front of the hotel. It was like the bloody Wild West with the stories you’d hear. It was pretty rough.”

He’d planned working in NZ for a while, going home to Aussie and then an OE in Europe, but a job at Lion Breweries’ Russley Hotel in Christchurch put paid to that, when he fell for the Kiwi receptionist, Ngaire, now wife of 48 years.

Their first date was at the White Heron house bar, after hours. Simon was also in the frame for a job there, but Lion Breweries were quick to promote him before he could take up another offer. He was put on a management scheme, becoming catering then food and beverage manager at the Russley, before working at the upmarket St George Hotel in Wellington. He became assistant manager there before managing the Rutland, in Whanganui after he and Ngaire married, then the Masonic in Napier.

On their OE through Asia, the UK and Europe, they lasted six weeks at England’s sixth busiest pub in South London, before working erecting advertising signs with a Ford Transit, and a caravan in tow.

After a stint in Wellington then opening a member-only chartered club in Rangiora, Simon, now father of two, scored a job as manager of Skyline Restaurant and Bar in Queenstown.

“We lived right in town, and I rode the gondola to work.”

Skyline was just a restaurant, coffee shop and viewing deck so the arrival of commercial parapenters was revolutionary. They provided great ‘viewing’, so Simon discounted their gondola passes, charging them fees, top and bottom, as a Queenstown Primary School PTA member. He charged them to land in the school grounds, raising about $8000 a year for the school.

Arriving in peak summer 1986, Skyline was pumping every night. Local bands played six nights a week until a guy turned up and told Simon he was a good soloist. “That was Kevin Lynch, and he was,” Simon says.

Skyline became popular for filming – a British TV IRA terrorist series filmed on the roof, Simon also a popular wedding witness.
In 1993 he went to see Bob Jack at Fisken’s Real Estate about a business he was selling but left with a job offer, enrolling for his real estate studies the next day.

In three weeks, he’d done his first ‘deal’ – a $147,667 section in Aspen Grove.

During another deal, the buyer a US Navy nuclear submarine captain, Simon found himself stranded on the office floor with a bad back. “I lay down to stretch and couldn’t get up. A fireman had to come and help the ambulance officer get me downstairs.”

He sold a houseboat too to a mortified husband pleasing his wife, dubbing the ad – ‘all day sun, no lawns to mow’.

After about 12 years Simon moved to Harcourts before retiring in 2022 after almost 30 years in local real estate.

A co-founder, competitor and trustee of the $10 Challenge fundraiser, Simon chaired the Queenstown Primary Board and St Joseph’s Parish Council, now local Lions president, yet again, and a member for 33 years. He served two terms on the Queenstown Lakes District Council in the mid-90s. A close second in three mayoral races, he was controversially appointed deputy mayor during Warren’s Cooper’s mayoral reign.

He chaired the Community Services and Shotover Jetboating Concession Hearings committees, enduring the 1999 floods and public dressing downs during controversial casino hearings.

Now national chairman of Abbeyfield NZ, Simon chaired the local committee from 2002 to 2012, celebrating the Frankton opening in 2006. He’s been on the national board for 10 years, chairman for eight. Proud Grandad of four, he’s also president of Wakatipu Senior Citizens, and convenor for RSA Dawn Services and the Skyline Charity Golf Classic.

His cheeky Aussie wit has always seen him through. Called late to replace Warren as speaker at an Australasian Funeral Directors Association Conference dinner Simon thought he was in for a boring night. “It was an absolute hoot – the best night, and I found out one of them buried my Uncle Larry back in Victoria.”