New Zealand...The story so far.

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Well its been about 1 month since arriving in New Zealand, so whats been happenning?.

As stunning as Queentown was the whole finding work situation was proving a little tricky for both James and myself. Even fruit picking/farm work in the area was in really short supply. Something i must be honest supprised me and started to worry me some what aswell. So we decided to throw caution to the wind and take a 2 day trip from bottom, to the top of the south island, to the quiet town of Blenheim. Here we immediatly found some work on a vinyard...PHEW!.

Definitly not as exciting or enjoyable as "Banana Humping" but its been a souce of work and a chance of experiencing another unique job in a very beutiful place, aswell as the chance to mix with people from all over the place. In the hostels weve stayed at weve met people from Switzerland, France, Italy, Germany, Canada, USA, Japan, Argentina and England. Then at work theres been Tongans, Chinese, Koreans, more Germans, Indonesians, Indians, Iraqi's, Irish, Brazilians, South Africans and of course Kiwis, (New Zealanders).

After 2 weeks of doing a variety of different tasks, some paid per hour, some contract, (pay per pick), ive found the Vineyard work to be generally boring, repetative and unchallenging. Even spending my working hours saying to myself "this is a means to an end, think of South America!" hasnt been enough to break the negativity or prevent the feeling of my brain melting away inside my head. Take "Singling" for example. Its not a phisically or mentally challenging job its just complete torture for your joints aswell as being mind numbingly boring and repetative. We're basically removing excess stems from the baby gape plants. Sound easy i know but because the plants are so low its impossible to find a comfortable position. Your left with a choice, bend your knees and protect you back or bend you back and protect you knees. I decided to protect my back but this meant that after 8 hours of doing dangerously deep squats/lunges my knees were in tatters. Theres also no shade whatsoever so your pretty much being toasted by the intense sun all day. Then when theres any hint of rain theres no work at all?. Ive found this especially frustrating as its much more comfortable/refreshing working in the rain than the blistering heat, but especially after waking up at 6:00am, having breakfast, getting ready, only to be told at 7:00am, "no work today".

The general organisation of some of the contracters is shocking aswel!. One day i was told to expect a phone call the following day at 6:00am with instructions of where and when we would be working that day. There was no phone call and no sign of life at the contracters office...Totally unproffesional!.

Fortunatly the local subway restuarant have offered me full time hours and as the restuarant is part of a large stadium complex, including gym, swimming pool and aerobic studios, there could be the oppurtunity to return, to teaching some fitness classes again too. This was a chance i felt would be daft not to take.

After Water Melon, Macadamia Nut, Sweet Potato, Sugar Cane and Banana work in Oz and now experiencing Vineyard work in New Zealand im feeling quite content with my farm work experience and im quite relieved to back back in a job/s that im familiar with and enjoy.

Im thinking of possibly continuing with this until the winter, (June here), and then heading back to Queenstown for the ski season, if we can arrange a job there.

Oh yea ive finally had my haircut too. Only took me a year to get to the barbers.

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