Day 259 - 294

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Hops Harvest 2016 that’s where we have been hiding out. After cruising the NZ Seasonal Work website and after 9 months on the road we found ourselves working the Harvest. The appeal was the uniqueness and the short harvest period of 4 weeks. Lance initially applied for a Tractor Drivers job and during the interview he popped out much delighted to say he also had me a job. Tea Lady and Lollypop girl (Traffic Control). My roll was extended on the first day and I ended up spending most of my time working in the Shed with a sweep and shovel😊. Lances Tractor job was also not just driving tractors, it required hanging each individual vine from your trailer to a hook above your head to go through the processing plant. Yes Gym memberships can be cancelled during this period. Whilst Lance and I were reasonably fit our upper bodies were not. There were some days when our bodies were screaming with discomfort in the early weeks. I needed to adjust the way I did things to protect my shoulder that was already injured. May have made a little more work for the surgeon when I get home. A few of the workers departed early by mutual agreement and due to lack of driving skills (damage they caused around the farm) and just physically struggling.

The Hop farm we were based at was in the Upper Moutere, conveniently just down the road from the Moutere Inn (oldest Inn in New Zealand). Numerous craft beers here to sample, and great food😊. This is a very pretty area and well worth a visit. We were lucky that we were able to park up on site. So stumbling out of bed early and getting home was just across the yard.

The process of Harvesting Hops is pretty unique. The vines are about 3.5-4 metres long, a bottom cutter cuts the vines at ground level which leaves them hanging from the overhead wires. Then the tractors and trailers are pushed along the vine rows by the Top Cutter as he cuts the vines allowing them to lay on the trailers. From here the tractors return to the shed with their load and this is when the hung on hooks for processing onsite. Once processed, kiln dried they are then baled and are trucked to NZ Hops for further processing (including palletising) and centrally marketed around the world. This Harvest we processed 13 different Hop Varieties from 60ha of vines. If you would like to see a video then Google NZ Hops Harvest and you will find some U-tube videos of the process at the farm we were working on.

A good team of about 22 staff, of which about 9 in the field and the rest in the shed. It’s been a great experience, physically challenging, 10-14hr days, 6 days a week. But we survived😊.

After a much appreciated Harvest party/dinner we are now parked up on the water’s edge at Mapua getting a couple of days R & R. We will be back into the travel adventures soon😊.

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Photos

P1100030
Lances 1st tractor before promotion to new tractor