With seemingly boundless energy, and a perma-smile, Janie puts a lot of her enthusiasm for life down to the Whakatipu.
"I’m so happy here — I smile every day."
Originally from Christchurch, Janie, 59, attended St Margaret’s College and then gained a Japanese degree at the University of Canterbury, mostly because she enjoyed the language.
"Also, I kept thinking it was going to be really good with business."
She spent six months teaching English in Japan, though she admits she only spoke enough to get by, before returning to New Zealand and happening upon a career in the hotel industry.
Initially working as a receptionist at the Chateau Regency in Christchurch, she was soon appointed to pre-open the Christchurch Park Royal in the mid-1980s, and then became the first female concierge in the country.
Next, she was tasked with opening the Yamagen Japanese Restaurant in the hotel, "and that just started my career".
She relocated to Auckland and started working in hotel sales for SPHC — now Accor — selling global hotels to the Kiwi and Australasian markets, including the South Pacific.
Janie stayed in that role for 25 years, with an 18-month gap in the middle, during which she sold Queenstown.
After being promoted and transferred to Sydney, she ran into former Destination Queenstown (DQ) GM Mark Frood at the 2003 Queenstown roadshow.
"I went up to Froody and said, ‘look, if ever you’re looking for someone in Australia to work for DQ, I’ll be the first person to put my hand up’.
"He came up to me the next morning and said, ‘were you serious?’
"I said, ‘absolutely — nobody knows, but I’m about to resign’, and he said, ‘we want someone to start in Australia’."
Janie became DQ’s first Australian marketing rep — "it was the best job in the world" — selling, mostly, ski and conference and incentives to the Aussie market.
But after she married Rob Lee at Queenstown’s Peregrine in 2005, the couple decided to return to NZ.
Back in Auckland, Janie went back to Accor, staying there till 2019, when she called time on that career.
Then she saw a job ad seeking a golf caddy/coach to help a woman get down to a 25 handicap within a year.
She decided she was the perfect candidate.
Both her parents played golf, and Janie first picked up the clubs at Hanmer Springs, where the family had a holiday house, when she was 7.
"I’d go out with them, just with a 7-iron, and just hit balls while they were playing golf."
She started playing competitively when she was about 13, played in her first junior nationals when she was 15, and represented Canterbury when she was about 18, but never planned to go pro.
"I was never that good, I just loved it ... and I wanted a career."
After other women in Auckland found out what she was doing, her services became sought after, "but I couldn’t get on courses".
Nevertheless, the idea for Kiss My Putt, a business designed to motivate women to play golf, was formed.
It came to fruition after Janie and Rob moved to Queenstown in November, 2020, living beside the Threepwood homestead, which was once owned by Rob’s great-grandfather, Robert Lee.
Rob, who’s just retired from Harrisons Carpet & Flooring after 17 and a-half years, manages The Cottages at Lake Hayes, while Janie’s busy living her passion.
Arrowtown Golf Club immediately threw its support behind Kiss My Putt, and she soon partnered with Golf NZ to deliver their She Loves Golf and Get Into Golf programmes.
"Golf is one of the most intimidating sports," she says.
"I started it because I wanted to take the scariness out of it, by taking people out on the golf course ... and making it fun."
She notes she works differently to a golf pro.
Her focus is on getting women started — when they get better, or finish her series, she encourages them to see a golf pro to get the swing mechanics.
Since January, 2022, she’s started 450 women on their golf journeys.
To date, 50 of them have joined the Arrowtown club.
She’s also "created a community of women that didn’t exist [before]".
That community includes women in their 20s whose boyfriends play, and they want to join in, school mums who want to catch up with their girlfriends, but are sick of coffee groups, empty-nesters looking for a new hobby, and retirees who’ve found themselves living on golf courses, and wanting to make the most of it.
Janie also runs Wine Down Wednesdays for her graduates to play up to nine holes during the season, is a private coach, organises two Craigs Investment Partners-sponsored women-only tournaments each year, as well as four-day ‘Rookie Retreats’ for women from out-of-town.
Needless to say, it doesn’t leave much time for Janie to play herself.
As to what she enjoys about her job?
"Just seeing the happiness, the high-fives, the sisterhood.
"That brings me such pleasure."
