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Published: April 7th 2008
Mal On
7:30 startsYo!
For the past 5 weeks we have been earning a crust and honing our apple picking talents. We were advised to contact Phil and Kirsty who own an orchard on the outskirts of Hastings. Unfortunately, we missed the Royal Gala harvest but as they are so kind they sorted us out for work on a friend's organic orchard until the Jazz were ready to be picked.
The organic place was well out of town and in a really peaceful area. We could park the van at the farm and use the amenities (see photo attached!) It took a few days to get into the daily grind but we soon settled into a comfortable 7 bins a day ( the size of a bin being the amount of apples you would expect to consume in a lifetime).
The best part of this week was discovering 'Roosters' the perfect watering hole after a hard days work. The place is a micro brewery pushing out a fine selection of batch brewed ales. It had a great atmosphere in the beer garden as tons of workers head down there at the end of the day. The cool thing is, when it closes
Sweaty Betty
Lived on an apple farm at 7pm they've got taps available for you to fill up 2 litre flagons and take it away!
2 weeks later we moved to Alma Alta which is part of Phil and Kirsty's orchards. It was closer to Rooster's which was quite a bonus with lots of other friendly pickers around to revel with on days off. A good multi-national collection of folk from France, Catalonia, Czech Republic, Malaysia, U.S. New Zealand and UK.
Over the last few weeks we have enjoyed several drunken evenings around the fire and been entertained by everyone's banter and Nick's Fire Eating. It's been great to have some more company as you don't see that many backpackers on the South Island, especially in the van.
As it happened, England were playing the final test in Napier, just down the road so we headed down on Easter Monday. The days play was pretty mundane with just one wicket but the barmy army kept us amused with their songs and punishing abuse of the NZ captain Dan Vittori. It went like this...
'DAN VITTORI, DAN VITTORI, HARRY POTTER IN DISGUISE, WE'RE GONNA STEAL YOUR GLASSES, AND POKE YOU IN THE EYE'
John
executed some handy repair work on the van to try to help us sell it in a few months time. A pot of filler and a can of spray paint later and she's looking sweet as. She's even running better (touch wood) think she appreciated some TLC.
Heading off today to the East Coast to follow the surf and explore once again!!Prospects of adventure are looking up even as the weather turns cooler as we move into to Autumn!
Not that much more to report on this blog, as we have been engrossed in all things apple.
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jono
non-member comment
now then
greetings big fella and collettia, sweet update...man roosters looks like a cool wateringhole. Nice job on the van jono, probably doubled her resale value I reckon. St Patricks "week" has been and gone here in Dublin. I've never seen such an enthusiastic and continued effort in boozing athletics...staggering. 3 more weeks in Dub then back to Berlin for 3 months. Don't feel bad about autumn coming....summer is coming here and it snowed yesterday! I knew there was a reason I avoided these wonky Islands for so long! Keep living the dream dudes. jono