Beutiful Blenheim And Vineyard Hell

28th Nov 19th Dec 2008

28th Nov 08

Dec 08We were goning to spend another night in the car but when we got to Blenhium we found a Hostel called Honi B's booked in and the guy from the reception gave us some numbers to call about some Vineyard Work
We are staying in a little house across the road from the Hostel, seems a nice little place to stay as its quite quiet, thats what we want if were going to be working. Theres a couple called Niall and Zuz and 2 sisters called Amy and Eithna, who seem really nice to.
We have a double room for $130 a wk, which is pretty good, because we still had the car we decided to do abit of food shopping for the week so we didnt have to carry it back.
Planning on staying here for just over 3weeks, so we will be here for Christmas.

29th Nov 08

Took the car back to picton, then got the bus back, the town looks really nice, a few pubs, shops, nothing speacial though, quite a quiet place really. It is the biggest Winery/Vineyard area in NZ. Alot of backpackers come here for work.
Kirsty rang a man about working in a vineyard, he sounded like he went back to sleep whislt still on the phone to her, she could hear him snoring ZZZzzzz!! hehe!! She was like "Helloo Helloo" then he answered "oh yeh ill pick you up at 6.30 on monday, think we'l have to ring him again tomorrow to make sure he dont forget...haaa!!
Jus chilled out all day and night, think thats what were going to do for the next 3 weeks, jus going to try and save some money.

30th Nov 08

Had a lie in today. Rang the guy about the vineyard work again jus to double check he was still on tomorrow, he remembered,lol!
Didnt really do alot today,jus sunbathed most of the day, got a little burnt as we havent sunbathed in about 3wks,hehe!
Watched incredibles on tv with everyone from the house, everyone is really nice, but there all quite quiet, suppose its a good thing really if were going to be getting up early for work every day!
Made some lunch and having an early night!! Wooooo Big day tomorrow, quite excited..Haaaa!!

1st Dec 08

Got picked up by are boss Mathew at 6.45, didnt no what to exspect for the day, drove for about 30minutes then we reached the Vineyard, we are working with about 10 others, in the Vineyard there are just rows and rows of VineTrees, but the top wire to hold them all in is above your head. We have to start with 10rows each, each row has between 50 and 300 VineTrees, 3 Trees to every post then we have to unclip the top wire which is on the post and then clip it into the middle clip. Where it is clipped into the top all the Tree branches are tangled and are above your head, you have to yank them out right over your head and pull them out, its quite tough!
We did this from 8-3, we get paid 1c + 1/2 per Tree,lol, were standing in puddles, brambles, stingers...ouch!!! Then from 3-7 we went on to this other Vineyard and did hourly pay, tucking the leaves into the wires and taking out the dead leaves. I stated speaking to this guy called sean, he was from NZ, only asked him if he had done this job long and he then told me his whole life story,lol about him being an alky, hes been in prison, kidnapped his child etc, i was like woooh! haa!! he seems alright tho!!
Worked 11 Hrs today, such hard work and we are in the sun all day, walking up and down hills, walking through puddles, brambles, stingers and prickles.
Dont no how we will stick 3 weeks as Kirsty already wants to quite,lol!!
Got home,was so tired, showed, ate and was in bed by 9pm....Shock!!! :(

2nd Dec 08

Got Picked up today even earlier, 6.15am this is waaaay to early for us, havent worked for 3months and this is fucking hardcore, our whole body was hurtying, feels like weve done a week at the gym,lol!! Weve tried doing streches but nothing works....Boooo!!!
Our Boss is from Tonga and our Superviser and his wife are Maurie's they all seem really nice and layed back, quite suprised really because you hear so many bad storys about the Fruit Picking bosses about them being so hard on you, so we have hard work but a nice boss, so we cant really moan can we.
Got to the VineYard, same work as yesturday, when a field is finished they normally drop you to the next feild, but when us and this girl Tina finished the van was no where to be seen for miles, Tina rang Macky (The Superviser) to pick us up, we waited about 1/2 hour for him, she said last week they left 2guys for 2hours b4 picking them up,so they were left with nothing to do and not getting paid!! hehe!! didnt do the hourly work so we got to finish at 3 which was great, feel so exshausted, never worked so hard in our lives, was in bed by 8pm.....Omg we couldnt do this for a full time job like the other guys we work with, we wouldnt have lifes,lol, its so tireing, cant hack it!!!
Quite lucky we are in the house that we are instead of being in a dorm in a hostel as every one is the same, jus come home after slaving away at the vineyard, shower, eat and sleep....Ohhhhhh its so Bad!!!!!
We were thinking about doing weekends but we think we will give that a miss now,hehe!!!

3rd Dec 08

Got picked up again at 6.15, got our bodys hurt even more, this is savage!!! Stiff Arms, aching every where :(
Same work as yesturday but we are getting faster...wooop!! more money! Yaaay!!!
Loads of wire were twisted and we were waiting for sean to finish his row, we were all in the van, he was goin mental..."ahhh all the fucking wires are all fucking twisted"...haaaa!! we thought it was quite funny, he wasnt happy, he was steaming, got in the van and was shouting about getting booze tonight....uh -- oh!! like to see what state he comes to work in tomorrow!!
This Women Kitty was back today, thinks shes like some bad ass Maurie women, every one knows her, driving her home was like driving through Burnt House Lane,lol!! haaa!!!

4th Dec 08

Sean wasnt in work today, he must of got really drunk last night,lol!! We were looking forward to seeing him today..haaa!!
Had to do something different today, still shitty wire lifting but it was 3 wires instead of the 1, we are getting paid 3c per tree now, its absoulutly savage!!! Lew flicked Kirsty in the lip with one of the wires today,it proper whipped her...ahhhhhh!!!! she cried about 5 times all day she aint likeing it atall, she hates it!! well we both do!! But Lew never cries about it!! hehe!!
What a life Ayeeee, in bed again by 8pm!!!

5th Dec 08

Wen we got picked up today we had to pick up this new Maurie Lady called Rose, she was well funny, swearing out the window and slapping macky...haaa!! Love the way they all talk, they say "Hey Bro...Bro...Bro...Bro" alot!! hehe!!
Thats the only good thing about this job is the people you meet, but you only really see them in the van in the morning and on the way home, coz when your let loose in the field you dont see any one for miles, your pretty much on your own for the whole boring day!!!! Its so draining!!
Got to Mathews house and he needed 5 people to go and work on a different field, we volentired,hehe, Hayley, Sean and Humberto did aswell, awww Humberto is so cute, he doesnt speak a word of English, feel quite sorry for him really!!
Got to this MASSIVE MASSIVE field, we had these Maurie Men Supervising us, they were like the size of door frames....ahhhh!!! Sceary they would drive up and down in there van checking your work, if they didnt think it was right you had to go back and do it again!!
The rows are sooooo long, we are getting paid 10c per post so it sort of works out the same as yesturday but they were going by trees before!
Our arms aint hurting any more, jus our feet, full of blisters and cuts :( ouch!!!
Because we worked for different people today they didnt drop us off at home, they dropped us where this food store was, about 20minutes from home, our feet were killing, had to walk without shoes on, so sore!
YAAAAAAAY!!!!! weve completed 1 whole week at the HELLYARD!!! ahhhhhh!!!!

6th Dec 08

Wooop!! Weekend off!!
We did say we would work the weekend, but when we herd them beep outside at 6am we jus stayed in bed...haaa!!! Hope we dont get shouted at on mon,lol!
Omg it was soo nice to have a lye in! :) Went into town they had had a market on, jus relaxed and sunbathed in the garden all afternoon.
In the evening went across to the Hostel with everyone from the house as they were having a bbq, was really nice because we got to no everyone alot bet as no one was tired from slavery! haha!! After the BBq we headed in to town to one of the Irish bars
Amy from the house is so funny, she is irish, she was so so drunk, well everyone was really! Kirsty won a pint downing comp with a Cheque guy!! Geeeet ooon!!!
On the way home Eithna slipped up in loads of sick, but she didnt even relise it was sick, she got back up as if nothing had happened, we were all crying with laughter, saying do u relise what you have jus done, and she was like yeh my new shoes are so slippery...haaa!! so so funny! Bless Her!!
We walked past a house with blareing music comming out the garden...everyone was like "yaaay a house party" we were like no, we think its a wake from this funeral we saw earlier, we went in anyway, so funny, the garden was full of stoners, they were all smoking under this canopy in the garden, u could hardley see them,lol we didnt stay long as they didnt have any alcahol,lol!
Had such a good night with everyone! :)

7th Dec 08

Went into town on the internet to upload some pictures, did some food shopping for the week, then jus chilled out for the rest of the day and night, going to have another early night! Back to the HELLYARD tomorrow :( Ohhh really dont want to go!!

8th Dec 08

Got picked up at 6.30 by Mathew, 2 lads were suppose to be doin some private hourly work for him but they wouldnt come out because they were so hungover, they had jus got in from a party...Haha!!!! So we were doing it! Kirsty was really worried that they might exspect to much from us because we were getting paid more!!
When we got there the man whos field it is was Englisg....Waaaay!!! He was actually really nice :)
We worked with him for the whole day, jus taking all the dead leaves out of the ines then we did abit of wire lifting, the wire lifting wasnt to bad as he was helping us aswell! We are getting paid $13 per hr, geet oon, a garentied wage!!!!
The day was actually rally good, we didnt feel that knackered, got home and had lots of energy for a change, so went into town for a bit!

9th Dec 08

We waited outside for Mathew to pic us up and Macky and Karia pulled up in the van, the van is normally full but because it was raining no one had turned up for work jus us muggs, should of stayed in bed!!!
Got to the place, was jus such a boring day, same shit jus a different day, but today the English guy wasnt helping us, so we had to do it all on our own. Kirsty cried again today she hates it so much, so boring , hard and stressfull, worked 8hrs. We got home, we were like Zombies
So Funny when we were home we were all jus sat around watching some tv, Niall had put a pizza in the oven, the oven is absoulutly shocking...haaa!! Suz kept looking over at it, woundered what she was looking at, then she ran over and opened the oven door and weve never seen so much black smoke come out.......ahhhhhhhh...haaaaaa you couldnt see anyone in the house because, we were all coughing, had to open all the doors and windows and stand outside for ages,lol!! Nice one Niall!!
Later on in the evening we could hear someone outside playing the flute really bad and out of tune, Lew was like christ who ever that is is terbible and kirsty thought it must be a child or someone next door, then Eithna looked out the window and it was only Niall practising the flute.....Haaaaaaa!! we were like WTF!!! Suz had bought him one before they left Ireland so he could practise and go busking, the book had tunes like... "and we all love clove" and "Oh Mc Donald Had a Farm!!" he is mental, hehe!!
Had a well early night... 7.30pm..... This is crazzzy ayeee!!!

10th Dec 08

Still working in the same place, still shit, we hate it so much!!!! Might quit today,seriously thinking about it, as tomorrow is are last day on this private job.
Its jus so tough because hes so fussy and moans if we snap the vines etc, he has fucking millions of them, he treats them like babys... His Sqeeky Voice does our heads right in....."Oh you've missed that one"..."Oh Carefull"......"Oh dont snap them"......Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh JUS SHUT UP WILL YOU!!!!!!
He comes along showing off with his dad stupid tractor..."Oh ill put this blower thing on the tractor that will blast all the water off the leaves so you wont get so wet!!!"
Yeh thanks for that, he only blasts out all the Leaves weve jus been tucking in for the whole day! Why dosent he do that before we start work in the morning!! "Oh im jus going off to try and find any catterpillers that may be eating away at my vine" ...Catterpillers.....weve worked on these stupid Vineyards now for 2 weeks and weve not seen 1 Catterpiller!!! He jus makes up excuses so he dosnt have to help us!!
So fed up with all this shit!! :( Kirsty cries every day without fail this place really takes it out of you! Another early night for us, jus cant wait for the weekend :)

11the Dec 08

Woke up to the alarm Mathews wife was picking us up today, she was only beeping outside at 5.45am WTF.
We were suppose to be getting picked up at 6.30, so we quickly got ready and got in the car. The 2 English men who own the field where out for pretty much the whole day due to a Christmas party so there was no one to supervise us!!! Woooo!!! Party in the field...Haaaaa, we wish!!
We were hoping to get this one side finished but there was a wire twisted, so we had to undo the wires from each end, lift it up from one end to the other and untwist it, because the vines are so high and knotted together, you have to yank it to get the wire out, but because it was so twisted, lew was yanking it so much all these Vines were flicking out all over the palce, even big stalks...ahhhhhh..... we were like shiiiit!!!! we're going to get into so much trouble, there was so much everywhere, Kirsty was hiding it in different rows,lol!!
Omg i hope we dont get shouted at tomorrow!!!
Weve decided we are defo quitting the HELLYARD tomorrow! We need to be fresh, stress free, no aches and no blisters on are feet for christmas!!
Got home and jus relaxed all night, decided we may have a BBq on sat and hopefully go on a Winetour on the sun, need to look into that one abit more first.

12th Dec 08

We got into Mathews car and told him this would be are last day, cant hack another day in this HellHole!!
Finished off everything pretty quickly because then we thought we would have an early day, but then Chris the English guy was like "Oh youve flown through these, Can you go and do the baby Savs" YOU WHAT, WE WANTED AN EARLY DAY....Ahhhhhhh!!! So fed up with the word Sav and Pino, driving us nuts!!!
Kirsty then cried again...Haaaaa!!!
We had manged to finish the whole feild ourselfs in 1 week. He gave us was a bottle of wine! He did say Thanks for all the hard work we had done, which was nice...Cheers!!!
Mathew picked us up and took us back to his to check wages from last week...Fuckers didnt pay us right for that fri when we had to go somewhere else to work. They only paid us for 20 smaller rows and we did 15 longer rows aswell with about 300 VineTrees in each! He said he will try and find the other sheet with it all on, no dought we will be seeing that again!!!
YAAAAAAY!!! last day

Family Photo

over with, its the best feeling in the world...Wooop!!
Got home and booked a WineTour to go to on sunday with everyone from the house.

13th Dec 08

Had a lie in today....Oh it was so lush!!! :) Jus chilled out in the morning, decided to have a BBq in the afternoon. Niall has been practising is flute all week and decided to go busking outside CountDown the supermarket while we went and got the food for the BBQ.
We got to CountDown and he started playing, we were all watching him, it was so funny, his notes were flying every where, so Suz had to hold them for him...Haaaa!!! It was so out of tune, he already put some change and a $10 note in the hat to make it look like people were likeing him,lol and these girls walked past and seen the money in the hat and was like "Waaaat someone has gave him 10Bucks...HaHa!! He made $5 in 20mins,lol. Ethna was going to do it aswell as she was quite good on the flute, but then she chickened out,lol... Dont blame her!!
Got loads of food and Beer, had such a lush BBQ.....loads of yummy food!! :)

Wine Tasting Tour On Another Page

15th Dec 08

Omg it was the worst rain ever today, had to wait in because Mathew was dropping out wages around, lew rang him and then he said he would be around tomorrow instead, so we went and did abit of food shopping.
Amy And Ethna Left Today the family is being split up as We have decided to move on at the end of this week aswell, so it will jus be Niall and Suz left in the house.
In the evening we were all sat watching tv and we herd this beeping coming from outside, it was only Mathew in his jeep asking if we wanted to work tomorrow...Haaaa...we are on demand, we were like NO WAY!!!

16 Dec 08

Jus been chilling out day and night. Mathew had paid us wrong.....again... What a suprise!!

18th Dec 08

Last night in Blenheim, played cludo with everyone in the house, Lew won :)
Going to miss everyone from the house, it was like we were a family,lol!! Need to move on though as weve been here for 3weeks, need a change of scenery, its only going to be Niall and Suz left out of everyone.

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