So what's happening? (part 1 of 2)

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Alright, a quick update so that my parents have their fears I might be destitute, or have driven off some road, allayed. And hey, maybe an update so my friends don't forget I still exist, somewhere on the other side of the planet :P

So after working near Tauranga, and after some spending of money in awesome locations with awesome people (like in Coromandel, maybe I'll post about it later), I was out of money, and without a job. And then came my long, very slow search for a job. And unfruitful one, though given the amount of effort put in, the results were like to be expected.

I did finally find a job at a glutenfree bread factory. In fact: the biggest one in NZ (employing during one shift, a grande total of 12 people, of which 4 backpacker-type people). It's breads were tiny, and 8 dollar aka 5 euro each, but darn tasty! I helped with the pizza-crusts.

After the yeast rising in what I can only describe as a sauna chamber, they get put into these revolving ovens. Then when the beeper goes off, you pull them out in spite of the 180 degrees air coming out with big kevlar gloves. Then the rythmic 'flumping' of the crusts out of their metal 'cans' onto racks so they can cool down (set the racks in front of big fans!) and be packed (not automatically, mind you, someone pulls the lever each time).

I only got burned twice (just beyond the edge of the kevlar gloves), but the guy I worked with showed me his arm with 'the marks of the veteran' (about 10 red lines on his wrist).

Thing was however, that while I finally got the job, immediatly after I got informed by Punchbowl, a bigger orchard, they wanted to hire me. The temp agency and my supervisor were not amused..but hey, this is a permanent(er) job instead of 3 days a week!

So I arrived at punchbowl, sharing my wooden cabin with a german guy named Valentine. Now you have to know that when they hired me they asked me how tall I was. Valentine was even taller than me: 2m04

They hired us so we could prune without ladders; it's great to be hired based on my unique personal qualities :P

With very long secateurs (gardening scissors in a way) we cut a leader vine growing up a diagonal string, that leads from the side to the top of a pole, that is resting on the canopy (=level where all the green stuff grows on top of metal wiring and horizontal beams). They grow them this way so vines can grow orderly up to the light, and then at year's end cut and tie them down in an orderly fashion.

So yeah, done that for a while, at minimum wage ($13.75 aka E9,-/hour) and every day there was the question if any supervisor knew what we should be doing, but it was interesting. I like working outdoors.

And speaking of which: more of that in part 2: Life at Punchbowl!
(but for now, some pictures mostly from my trip today to Rangitoto, using my new camera! A Fujifilm XP60, waterproof and shockproof meant to replace the camera I accidentally sat on. Nice pictures, though I still have to figure out how to avoid bright glare when there's bright and dark areas in the frame)

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Photos

Orchard in North Auckland
This would be an example of a neatly set up orchard block: vines in rows, a little bit of canopy, and poles raised up on wires on the canopy level. The strings allow the vines to grow neatly upwards, instead of randomly upwards without guidance.

Tomatoes!
Recently, my eagle-eyed colleague saw something in the ditch near the local roundabout: free tomatoes!

Auckland from afar 1
Did a trip to Rangitoto Island today; Rangitoto is an extinct volcano in front of the coast of Auckland, in the Hauraki Bay.
Sky Tower towering over the Central Business District.

Rangitoto
It looks like a nice symmetrical cone from the distance.

The wharf
But it's more like a (damaged) baked egg up close.

The view
I like the way sunlight scatters over the water, with other islands in the distance

Kowhai grove
Once on the island, there's a small side-track from the main track, and immediatly I feel at home.
Saw very few Kowhai trees in the Kowhai grove though.

Pohutukawa1
Rangitoto is known for having the largest Pohutukawa forest in the world. Now Pohutukawa is endemic to NZ, so that's not surprising, but it's nice to see such a big collection together.

Auckland from afar 2
Foreground: some of the old baches (=kiwi for summer houses) that were inhabited until 1934 when the island became a nature preserve.
Background: North Auckland. The hill in front of the Sky Tower was used as a fortification in WW2.

Auckland from afar 3
Auckland: city of sails. Also note the lava stone everywhere, and vegetation growing out of it. Rangitoto is one of the more recently erupted volcanoes, circa 600 years ago.

Baches!
Baches are basically not much more than holiday shacks. This one had a pool I believe. Notice how they ran out of pink paint while repainting these baches.

Scoria 1
Large patches are quite barren, until some soil builds up.

Scoria 2
But the army made nice paths during WW2 when preparing for potential Japanese invasions.

Scoria and beach
Small track with a dead end. For the view?

Climbing the cone 1
No...this is a view!
Motutapu Island, a much older island which was farmed in contrast to rocky Rangitoto, is so close they've connected the islands with a foot bridge.

Climbing the cone 2
More view of Motutapu, and the extensive Pohutukawa forest of Rangitoto.

Fun with panoramas 1
Just having some fun with the (up to 360 degrees) panorama function of my new camera!

Fun with panoramas 2
A panorama with me in it? Courtesy of Sandra, a friendly belgian teacher of science I met on the way to the summit!

Crater
Sometimes it's hard to capture something immense properly, especially if it's as vast as a volcano crater that's completely overgrown by now. Interestingly, 100-150 years ago this wasn't the case.

Pohutukawa hybrid
This might be one of the Northern Rata/Pohutukawa hybrids the guidebooks talked about: Northern Rata is closely related to P., but instead of a (mainly coastal) tree that spreads out with multiple stems, it sometimes grows in the crow of other trees with roots snaking down until it hits the ground. Then it starts to develop into a fuller tree by fusing the roots.
Looks sorta like it at least.

Lava caves 1
Some tiny lava caves which I didn't crawl into much, because I didn't bring my torch, and my phone is worthless in this aspect. Cool how the roots grow down from the cliff directly above.

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Auckland is a beautiful city
We'd love to visit again.