Post 11: Kiwi work 🥝

Monday 13.10. That was the day I started working at the kiwi orchards. Of course I knew it wouldn't be easy, but especially after my first day I was completely exhausted. My neck was really hurting because I had to look up the whole time. Even my eyes were tired from the sunlight. But now after doing around 38h the same job, I'm getting used to it :) It makes fun to work while listening to music, podcasts or audiobooks! 

What's my job?

First I want to clear up a misunderstanding. Until Monday I thought I'm gonna do fruit picking (put the kiwi fruits from the tree into a basket). But what we actually do is thinning (remove some buds to get bigger kiwi fruits). That's what I see every day:

The small round balls are called buds. They have the size of a cherry pit. As you can imagine, it's not possible that all of them get to kiwi fruits, so we have to remove some.

Thinning rules top 5

1. Triple: Take the two buds on side, leave the king.

2. Huge plants: Leave 5-6 buds.

3. Small plant: Leave only 3-4 buds.

4. Cashews: Remove buds looking like cashews, mostly they are bigger and weird looking. If it's the king, leave one of the buds on side instead.

5. Plant: Remove the whole plant if it's on the bottom of the branch or if it has no leafs but only buds.

It sounds easy, doesn't it?

How a orchard looks like

That's basically how every kiwi orchard looks like. The huge area is devided by wooden columns and between each column is a kiwi tree. They grow up to the wires and make a "roof".

Each worker takes a bay:

We need a structure to ensure that no plant is missed.

 - branch to branch: you start at the tree and go along each branch.

 - wire to wire: you start at a corner and go along the wires. (That's what I prefer)

There are usually 3-4 people in a line. Once someone finished the bay, they go to the next bay and so on until the line is done!

My everyday life as a orchard worker 

At 6am, I wake up and prepare sunscreen, sunglasses, hat, water and food. I usually make my lunch box in the evening before. It's really hard to get up because it's pretty cold in the morning, but I mostly don't have much freetime after work to I use the morning for reading. 

At around 7am, our conductor text us the time and place to go. Usually he texts something like "Today 8am, same orchard". 

At 7:45am, we get into Jorge's car and he drives us to the orchard. There are many orchards near Opotiki, but usually it doesn't take longer than 10min. 

At 8am, we sign into a list like a timecard so that we get paid. Then we start working. My conductor Hapi works together with another conductor Pala (they are both Indian, btw the most workers here are Indian). They assign each one a location. 

At 10am, we have our first paid 15min-break (You can see the timetable below). I usually walk back to the car and drink some water.

At 12:30pm we have a  unpaid 30min-lunch break. Everyone eats their lunch, it's also a nice chance to talk to eachother. It's getting warmer and I often take off my jacket.

At 3pm we have another paid 15min-break. Time passes very slowly after this break. Our conductors know that to they always say "take it easy! Talk to eachother! A couple of you per bay!". 

At 5pm, when we hear "home time!", it's finally finished. We walk back to our cars and go home :) I usually don't really rest but I make my lunchbox for the next day. Sometimes I walk to the supermarket to buy some snacks as a reward for myself :D Today I bought ice-cream, but I often prefer chips (here you call them chippies).

At 6pm I make and eat dinner. It might be a bit early but I'm often very hungry. Today I made risotto with rice from yesterday. 

----------

Thank you for reading! It took a bit longer for this post because I had to collect some experience and get used to it. 

In my next posts I'm gonna tell you about my friends I've got at the orchard, funny happenings with conductor Pala and my problem about the first accommodation - yes I moved!!