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Published: February 16th 2009
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It seems the grapes have run out as far as McWilliams winery are concerned and my services as a harvest labourer / grape dynamo are no longer required. The last three weeks spent in the Hunter Valley YHA have been a stark contrast to the peaceful earlier two weeks working there, with the hostel jam-packed full of grape pickers to the point where you can barely fit your food in the fridge or get a seat on a sofa in the air-conditioned common area. This did have its advantages though, as there were many fun times to be had playing pool, ping pong, volleyball, poker, football, pool fights and 'frontal bomb' (think like a traditional 'bomb' into a swimming pool but face first) with a hectic international mix of Germans, Canadians, Welshies, Dutchies, Scots, Swedes, Estonians, Aussies, Kiwis, Japanese and more. I even managed to come a close second, and a whisker away from winning a crate of Toohey's Extra Dry, out of twenty in a tense pool competition, somehow being beaten in the final by a both pissed and stoned Yorkshireman.
When not messing around at the hostel, there were grapes to be picked. Far more grapes than most
people would ever see in millions of lifetimes. Pre-5am starts have been the norm, sometimes managing to scavenge a free lift from Marco Italiano but sometimes having to pay the extortionate $4 AUD for the hostel shuttle bus. A typical day involved donning the illuminous 'Mount Pleasant 2009 Vintage' wide-brimmed hat, starting work as the sun came up around 6am filling buckets and snipping bunches of grapes, whilst being shouted at and (affectionately) called insults such as a 'bunch of cunts' by our legendary bogan supervisor Whitey, until the 9.15am 'smoko' break. We'd then snip grapes until the 12noon lunch break, before again snipping grapes until around 2.30pm or earlier if we cleared the vines sooner. The only way to escape the monotony of snipping grapes would be to volunteer- or be volunteered for- 'bucketing'; the harsh exercise of collecting full grape buckets and tipping them into the giant bin attached to the tractor, which is extra tough after the sun comes up, especially with temperatures that have reached over 40 degrees. At times snipping bunches of grapes would cause us to fall into grape-fixated semi-trances, which we'd only wake up from if there happened to be a particularly nasty
Working scenery- not a bad view
This is probably why the vineyard is called Mount Pleasant. looking spider, scorpion or huge lizard either on one of the vines, crawling up our arms or on our hats. Some of the guys even saw Redback spiders (Australia's second most deadly), though I can't say I had the pleasure of meeting one.
Despite meeting some good people at the hostel, the highlights of the three and a half weeks came at the weekends: Firstly being picked up by Amy, stocking up on wines (40% McWilliams discount!) and being driven to the Central Coast for a weekend that involved a trip down the river and a chance to steer her Dad's boat, before getting drunk on red wine and port over dinner with Amy's parents, brother Jake and mates Stacey and Candice. Another weekend highlight was being picked up by Karl in the Mercedes and driven to the Coast to watch the Mariners' defeat to Queensland Roar, which once again turned into a huge night out in Pulse, Gosford, getting wasted, playing pool and talking crap until 5.30am with Aussie legend James and his pissed off housemate Andrew who left in a huff after James telling me and Karl we're his 'best mates in the world'. If only I
hadn't spent $180 AUD on that night out- despite knowing I was so skint that I'd taken a job fruit-picking- it may have been perfect.
Money issues are starting to look a little better though. With about 90 hours work behind me I still managed to make an OKish profit after paying for accomodation, food, the enormous foreigner's 29% income tax and the occasional excessive night out. So now, after a quick detour back to Sydney to see friends and stay in a King's Cross hostel in the same room as the 'events manager', whose job it is to take everyone on nights out and get pissed for free 6 nights a week, it's time to do some 'proper travelling' and see more of this massive country. My plan is to head up the east coast for the surf and sun, hitting all the hotspots like Byron Bay, the Gold Coast and the Great Barrier Reef along the way, although I'll have to find more work at some point to keep the funds flowing- as long as it doesn't involve grapes I'm game!
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