The year-round central business district community chaplain of the Salvation Army in Queenstown took on extra duties this winter as field chaplain for 800 staff at Coronet Peak and the Remarkables ski areas and the downtown headquarters of NZSki Ltd.
This season is only the second winter Mr Higgins and the staff support initiative ran in partnership between the charitable organisation and company and it was proving to be a comfort for workers.
"NZSki have a staff care programme and they were looking at how they could tap into other community services to create better connectivity for their staff," Mr Higgins said.
"They started talking to the Salvation Army about that four years ago and we could've easily plugged them into the existing services, but we didn't have someone who could represent the role in the field. I spoke to [corps leader] Kenneth [Walker] about expanding the CBD role."
Mr Higgins travels from the army headquarters in Camp St to visit Coronet Peak every Tuesday between 10am and 2pm and the Remarkables every Wednesday from 11am to 1pm.
He wears Salvation Army uniform and NZSki authorisation as he mingles with staff at the skifields.
"Really my role is reminding the staff there are support services for them," Mr Higgins said. "There is someone they can speak to who isn't part of NZSki, or a friend, or relative and doesn't have a religious, or financial agenda. As a result, we've found staff have wanted to engage with us for help."
The field chaplain said he encountered a broad range of issues, including workers who have no money for food after they paid for their rent and bond and while they waited for their wages.
He has provided food parcels from the army's food bank.
Some staff faced homeless-ness when their accommodation situation suddenly changed and he had arranged interim lodging for them.
Many workers were living in a foreign country for the first time, and for many English was not their first language, so the pastor dealt with homesickness and helped them understand contracts, training and their rights.
He was on stand-by to offer advice on relationships, addiction, grief, spirituality, budgets and cultural integration and could point people to government and non-governmental resources.
Off duty, Mr Higgins has been known to take to the slopes himself, describing himself as an "enthusiastic skier without poles".
The New Zealand-born, Australia-raised pastor was a minister for 28 years and involved in pastoral, high school and hospital work across the Tasman. A year spent working with the refugee community in Belgium was followed by the move to Queenstown 10 years ago and he joined the Salvation Army in 2008.
