It June and I am still in Tauranga. I have a bad habit to get stuck in the places if I am given a chance. I have been resting on my laurels for one week now. We finished picking a week ago. I was gonna leave this place and give a shot in Wellington but once again I changed my mind. I wanted to torture myself with hard orchard work as pruning was suppose to start in the beginning of this week and the owner of the hostel said that there is more work like mandarin picking, pruning and grafting coming up on the kiwi orchards. Well for a various reasons pruning didn't start. The downside of farming jobs is that they are far from steady and consistent. You are a way more on the mercy of the weather. You work like madman day after day because next day it might start raining and ruin the fields for some time. No work equals no money.
In the very beginning my my kiwifruit picker career we were rained in for 4 days. After that I worked 10 days in a row from 8-00am 17.00 or 17:30.They were long days picking, picking and picking. Needless to say I was sore, exhausted and kiwifruits appeared in my dreams during the nights. Got 2 days off due rain after 10 days stretch and worked again for 6 days. I doubt I have never worked that hard for my paycheck which was pretty miserable in spite of hard work but better than nothing. But it never occurred to me to give in at any stage. Some mornings were really cold, dew made the trees moist and thick cotton gloves got soaked in no time. No matter how fast you picked and fingers were freezing. No point of asking a new pair, because "there was nothing wrong with them" You really appreciated when the weather got a bit warmer. When the hands were dry and warm, picking felt almost pleasant, almost.
After all the contemplating whether to go to Wellington or not, I was suppose to try pruning even though it sounds technical and difficult and I have a funny feeling that I'd be useless out there. You have to separate female and male trees and cut one of them. (I don't remember which one, the trees look all the same to me). You don't want mess them up or there is no fruit next year. But most definitely they'd monitor you very carefully at the beginning.
On Tuesday, I decided to go the city for the first time and find a bank to deposit some cash into my bank account. I didn't find the branch of my bank and I just went to a supermarket to make some basic grocery shopping. I wasn't until the evening when I went buy more internet time I realized in horror that I don't have the minigrip bag $290 in it I was suppose to take the the bank any longer.I searched for it everywhere. The terrible thruth was that stupid bag was gone. The contractor pays us in cash. I had a feeling that I might have dropped the bag while I was in the supermarket. It was too late to go back there so I just had to leave it to the next morning. For some reason I was hopeful to retrieve my precious cash. I was well aware that dropping cash on the floor in a supermarket is pretty much the same as offering it to someone on the silverplate.
But guess what I got it back. Some beautiful soul had handed it in. My payslip was still in the bag so I wasn't difficult to proof that I was mine. I couldn't believe my good fortune. This time I asked for directions to the bank branch and I rushed there to get my money in safe.
I was less lucky with work this week and made little money but I was really lucky to get back the money earned so far. On Sunday I picked kiwifruits for a different contractor just to earn a few dollars. At this stage you respect every dollar you earn on this minimum wage world of the backpacker under working holiday scheme. Grim? not really, it just a totally different world that you wouldn't put up with in the country of your origin. Here you are not just physically in a different place but also mentally. In many ways this is an experience of a life time. You gotta pick kiwifruits in Kiwiland!
