"I was handed over when [skifield founder] John Lee sold [to the present owners]. I was one of the fittings," Mrs Curtis quipped yesterday.
The Cardrona skifield team celebrated Mrs Curtis's retirement last Friday night but Mrs Curtis will remain "on call" for a short period while her successor in payroll and accounts, Rebecca Lewis, learns the ropes.
Mrs Curtis and her singer-songwriter husband Martin arrived in Cardrona in 1976 to take over the school bus run and rented the Knucklepeak homestead before settling into their own home.
Over the years, they have immersed themselves in Cardrona life, raised three sons - Glen, Ross and Brian - and taken on many roles in the wider Upper Clutha community.
Mrs Curtis started working for Cardrona skifield founders John and Mary Lee in 1978, the year the first tow rope went in.
"I had been a secretary previously, so I got talked into writing John's letters, then roped into payroll. When I first started, there was just someone in charge of the tow rope, a ski instructor, a maintenance guy, a manager, John and Mary, and me. Eddie and Rosemary Jones were at the Cardrona Hotel and would go up to the skifield and do hot soup and bread at a big table. It just all evolved from there, as computers came in and the skifield got bigger," she recalled.
Now the skifield employs at least 450 people at season's peak and many workers return to Cardrona each year.
"We do get a lot of staff coming back and that's good. It is like greeting old friends," she said.
Mrs Curtis has worked part-time in the summers and fulltime in the winters but while most skifield workers have travelled up the Cardrona valley from their homes in Wanaka, Mrs Curtis has been going in the opposite direction, to the town office.
Working part-time in the summer has allowed her to take on other jobs, including various roles for the Upper Clutha A and P Society (1979-2005), Gin and Raspberry Horse Treks (1980-1988), driving the school bus (1976-2007) and delivering rural mail (1985-1998).
Mr and Mrs Curtis continue to hold the contract to look after the Cardrona Hall and clean the village's public toilets.
Mrs Curtis is looking forward to travelling with her husband and spending time with their six grandchildren.
