Visitor Experience Host

Imagine coming to work surrounded by native wildlife, ngahere and people who genuinely care about protecting Aotearoa’s taonga.

Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre is looking for enthusiastic Visitor Experience Hosts to join our newly structured Visitor Experience team.

This isn’t a traditional front-of-house role. Our Visitor Experience Hosts work across the whole visitor journey – welcoming visitors, admissions and retail, café service, bookings, visitor experiences, events and supporting education programmes.

You’ll also play an active part in helping Pūkaha grow, identifying opportunities to enhance the visitor experience, confidently promoting and upselling our products and experiences, encouraging memberships and donations, and supporting marketing campaigns and promotions.

What you’ll be doing

No two days at Pūkaha are quite the same. You could be welcoming visitors and sharing the Pūkaha story in the morning, making coffees over lunch, helping with a school or visitor experience in the afternoon, and making sure everything is ready for the following day.

As a Visitor Experience Host you will:

• provide warm, engaging and knowledgeable customer service
• work confidently across both our Visitor Centre and Café
• manage admissions, retail sales, memberships and visitor enquiries
• prepare and serve café food and beverages, including barista coffee
• actively identify opportunities to upsell retail, café products, visitor experiences and other offerings
• confidently promote memberships and donations and help visitors understand the different ways they can support Pūkaha
• support marketing campaigns and promotions, ensuring current offers and key messages are communicated effectively to visitors
• contribute ideas for promotions, visitor experiences, products and content based on what you see and hear from our visitors
• help ensure displays, signage and promotional material are current, engaging and well presented
• support bookings, tours, education programmes and visitor experiences
• act as a professional first point of contact for Pūkaha, handling incoming calls and general enquiries and directing these appropriately across the organisation
• use initiative when handling enquiries, taking accurate messages and resolving routine queries
• provide reception support for the wider organisation, including welcoming visitors, suppliers, contractors and other stakeholders attending meetings or appointments
• maintain high standards of presentation, cleanliness and food safety
• assist with events and special programmes
• learn and confidently share the stories of Pūkaha, our wildlife and our conservation work
• work collaboratively across the wider Pūkaha team.

Who we're looking for

Experience in hospitality, tourism, retail, visitor attractions or customer service would be useful, but attitude and willingness to learn are just as important.

You'll be someone who:

• genuinely enjoys working with people
• can deliver excellent customer service even when things get busy
• is comfortable working across both hospitality and visitor services
• is practical, adaptable and willing to help wherever needed
• communicates well and enjoys being part of a close team
• takes responsibility for getting things done
• is interested in conservation and keen to learn and share the Pūkaha story
• is comfortable speaking with visitors, groups and, with training, supporting tours and education activities
• understands that weekends and public holidays are an important part of working in a visitor attraction.
• has a natural eye for sales opportunities and is comfortable recommending, promoting and upselling products and experiences without losing the genuine, welcoming visitor experience

Barista, food handling, retail or tourism experience would be an advantage, but training can be provided for the right person.

The roles

We are recruiting for three permanent Visitor Experience Host positions, with hours designed to reflect the seasonal nature of Pūkaha:

• 1 position: 40 hours per week during summer, with a minimum of 32.5 hours per week during winter
• 2 positions: 30 hours per week during summer, with a minimum of 20 hours per week during winter.

These are permanent roles, with hours varying seasonally as outlined above.

Pūkaha operates seven days a week, so the roles will include regular weekend and public holiday work.

Why Pūkaha?

You’ll be joining Pūkaha at an exciting time as we build a more connected visitor experience and continue developing the ways people can engage with and support our conservation work.

You’ll work in an extraordinary environment alongside people involved in conservation, wildlife, education, visitor experiences and mana whenua partnerships.

Most importantly, you’ll play a direct role in making sure the people who visit Pūkaha leave having experienced something memorable – and with a greater connection to our wildlife and conservation kaupapa.

If you're someone who likes variety, enjoys people and wants a role where your working day is unlikely to look exactly the same twice, we'd love to hear from you.

To apply, please submit your CV and a short cover letter telling us why you'd like to join the Pūkaha team and which of the available working-hour arrangements you are interested in.