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Published: August 29th 2006
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Me and my grader
The Grader 1. Notice the fasionable atire and constant vigilance. These are green kwiws. If we muck up too much on a particular pallet of fruit and fails quality control it gets sent to be repacked (what i was doing before) Hey folks. An update i feel into the world of the kiwi re-packer. Since the last blog entry at the sad exit of Claire I slipped into the hard work and somewhat bizzare lifestyle of a Kiwi Packhouse person.
In all honesty most days followed the format outlined in the last blog, and it would be a lie to say that the work was interesting. But for 2 weeks every morning i rose at 6.50am, ate a very British bowl of porridge (much to the ammusement of my South American work mates), and then set off to 12 hours of hard labour. For the first week this was simply looking at Kiwi fruit from one box deciding if it was the sort of Kiwi people may want to buy and then binning the rest of them. However in the world of the packhouse there was scope for promotion of sorts, and in just 2 weeks i got 'promoted' 3 times. At the strart of week 2 i was asked if i wanted to go on the grader, and anything being better than the monotomy of squeezing never ending fruit i jumped at the chance. It turned out to be a
Supermanning
Kiwis cant fly but i can..man thats a bad joke good move as my new job was to watch Kiwis along a conveyor belt (oooo..). This may sound equally as boring but it was a cut throat world where every second counts and you have to be on your toes. If a bad Kiwi gets past you then...well nothing happens but you feel slightly more important. Then came promotion number 2 to the position of Supermanning (as we called it). This involved me and one other person lying over the end of the conveyor belt and thrusting arms forward in a Superman style pose. Again it may sound dull but days pass a lot quicker when you can pretend to be a Superhero. Also due to looking down at Kiwis on a green belt all the time you got the impression you were flying over the Kiwi, rather than them passing under you. Then final promotion to the primary packing. This was tough as all the fruit that has passed along the conveyor belts then gets fired out of the other end of the machine at high speed to unsuspecting folk who have to gather them very quickly and put them into boxes. Sounds easy but these are fast fruit
Repacking area
booooooooooooooooooooo and no sooner than you'd filled one box and turned them all the right way up to look nice you had a cascade of fruit everywhere around which came when you weren't looking. Luckily this promotion was shortlived and i went back to Supermanning, and the comfort of lying down. Granted there is a slight problem of falling asleep in this position, and one Asian chap had to be demoted for one too many naps. All in all i think the experience was a positive one (hmm..well almost) and it was good to do some money earning for a while (my friend Alfredo would remark in broken English "the clock is ticking and the money is dripping marc"). Also the routine and people were nice, and whereas on the first day i drove to work on my own, by the end i had a sizable posse in my car pool. As a final word on the work at the kiwi factory i can say, and i dont know whether this is cool or not, I inspected 2million Kiwi in my 2 and a bit weeks. Sounds unbelievable but as we often had to invent things to pass the time number
Mt Manganui
More of a hill to be honest but very nice one activity was wondering how many Kiwis we checked, and after many double checks this was our best estimate. In just the time I was there 45 Million boxes of either 33 or 65 Kiwis were processed. Number 2 occupation incidentally was wondering where all the Kiwis come from, really...Te Puke is too tiny for such things in my opinion.
Anyway as mentioned there were some saving graces from the past two weeks. The job, as you probably gather, was pretty nasty. And the Hairy Berry Bunkhouse where i staying in an 8 bed dorm was little better. The kitchen lacked very kitcheny things, like plates,a dn cups, and pretty much anything else a self respecting kitchen would have. The room was small and cold. And most of the interior wall would be worried in more than a breeze. However, and it's a big however. Luckily the people that i met there were fantastic. Mainly from Brazil, Argentina and Germany and all of them cast iron heros. After 12 hour days of hard graft puctuated only with break times which ALWAYS coincided with the sun going behind a cloud, you'd think morale was low. But somehow everyone was always
happy, I found 2 or 3 people to play guitar with which was geat, there were constant jokes about everybody's attempts to (largely unsuccessfully) improve each others languages, many parties, lots of dancing (my European blood did not stand me in good sted against Argentinian girls), and smiles all the tme. Also i made some really good friends who i was very sad to leave when it was time to go. I almost considered staying for another week but in the end as time left in NZ is short I decided to move on.
As a farewell dayout on my last Sunday (the day before Auckland and buinessy thngs like selling the car and deciding where to go next - quite probably South America after all the propogander i was fed by my work mates), me and 4 friends drove to Tauranga and Mt Manganui for a day out in the sun. You can see from the pictures we had a super time and the view from the top was stunning. It very much had the feel of a beach resort in high season but in a quaint (try and explain the menaing of that to a Brazilian, and
Brazil Nuts
Love to be able to name them all but my comment space inst long enough. This was the top of the top of the Mt the difference between 'too much' and 'too many', and most of the English language really) New Zeanland sort of a way.
So all in all I've had a suprisingly enjoyable 2 weeks and it probably ranks amougst one of the most rewarding things I've done. It certainly wasn't easy to be deviod of any other native English speakers for so long but I came to love it and enjoyed the odd celebrity status. I'll really miss the place, not something i thought possible.
Incidentally my new favourite phrase gathered from the time is Pega Leve (pro: begger levvy) which means 'take it easy'. We said it a lot. (I dont think its a rude way of saying it but if it is I appologise)
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Mayrad
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hello from simon
It's always amazing how the shittiest of places/jobs can bring out the best in people and life. Safe travels on your final few months back mate, and hopefully we'll finally meet up for a drink in London sometime! Simon