Today was my second to last day working on the vineyards – it was a nice sunny day but there was a nasty wind all day which wasn’t so nice. I couldn’t believe it in the afternoon when, despite there being no clouds anywhere in the sky, it just started raining. A “sun shower” they get called – the wind brings the rain over from the mountains and it made the most beautiful rainbow I’ve seen because there was still so much sun. The work itself was fine, except for having the sun in my eyes all day. Of course now that I’m about to finish I’m really getting fast and I finished a whole row and made a start on a second one. In the morning I mentioned to P. that I had looked for some Sacred Hill wine in the supermarket (the vineyard we are working on) but … Continue reading →

I got a pet pukeko! One of the pukeko on the farm decided not to be scared of humans anymore and to live in front of my apartment and I decided to name him Pete. The only problem was that he scared C.’s son J. I spent a whole evening following the pukeko with J. and we fed the bird with bread. J. was very proud not to be scared anymore, but even more important is now that J. likes Pete, N. (who really doesn’t like birds, he actually has a fear of chickens which is pretty funny) won’t be allowed to shoot Pete, yay! Of course the fact that Pete is trying to build a nest by the apartment means that it is almost certainly a “she” and not a “he”, but the name Pete is just going to stick anyway. It’s sad that I won’t get to see … Continue reading →

Went to the cinema tonight to watch Pirates of the Carribean 4. Haven’t been to the movies in ages and Tuesdays are the cheap nights here as well, so E. and I went together and used it as a good excuse to eat some junk food. He might have got just a little annoyed at how quickly I can eat popcorn 

Got back from Wellington yesterday – what a wonderful but rather expensive weekend. Compared to back home clothes are really cheap, but when I think about what I earn here they are horribly expensive. Far too easy to spend a whole week’s income in one store. Must be careful not to lose my feeling for values!

My first week pruning was good – my totals for the four days I worked were 93, 82, 115 and 107. Seems that I will keep making ok money with the new job but now I am having some real problems with my shoulder. It doesn’t really hurt during the day but at night when I go to sleep it aches really badly and gives me a lot of trouble sleeping. The woman I borrowed the pruning gear from had similar troubles and recommended a cream called Deep Heat for it. The cream smells terrible but seems to help enough to let me sleep, at least for a while. This weekend I’m off to Wellington for a long weekend. As always I have a friend whose couch I can stay on while I’m there   I finished my salsa course this week and there is a big salsa event down … Continue reading →

I had my first day pruning today which meant going back to Flaxmere. It’s ok, the people I am getting a ride with seem ok and I can leave Harry up on their property off the street. Apart from saving lots of money on petrol it also means I can sleep for almost an extra half an hour in their car while we drive out to the vineyards. Didn’t do too bad with the pruning either – I finished 93 plants at $1.10 a plant which I’m sure will go up much more with practice. It was great to be working with C. and J. again too.

This week I worked in the glasshouses all week and had my last day on Friday. It was a great week and the people there were really nice. I did all sorts of different things, planting, weeding and winding cucumbers up their wires. The staff were so nice that one of them, C., even lent me her pruning gear and gumboots for me to use doing grape pruning for the next month or two. The only shit thing that happened was someone went into the staff area while we were all busy working and stole everyone’s tobacco. All of my things were in my little backpack which was hidden away behind a corner and nothing was taken, including my wallet which was also in there. On Friday I went to another break-up party with E. It was in Flaxmere, not the best part of Hawkes Bay, and therefore it was … Continue reading →