After I finished my travelling the West Coast I headed inland to Wanaka where I spent a few days before heading through to Queenstown. Both places are in the mountains and I will update you on my adventures in both these places as soon as I find the energy to write about them.
I pretty much came to the end of my savings whilst exploring Queenstown so I called up my previous boss from the Pack House and went back to Palmy to rebuild my savings. I was lucky in the fact that I made it back to Palmy and had started working when the dreaded Covid-19 struck the country and we proceeded straight away into lockdown. I was one of those essential workers, which was great because I wasn’t sat in the hostel bored for the 7 weeks we were sat in lockdown and I was working 6 days a week so there was little time to procrastinate.
The New Zealand government have reacted amazingly to the threats of the virus, locking down the country after 205 confirmed cases. On the 19th March they closed the borders to all non-New Zealand citizens and residents before setting in the level 4 lockdown on the 25th March. I think its not only thanks to the New Zealand government but as well to everybody who’s living here, pretty much everyone stuck to the level 4 restrictions which I think helped a great deal after looking at news articles from other countries not taking it as seriously as they should be, especially in the UK.
I am so thankful that I am in a country that has passed hits lockdown state and has only 1 active case of Covid-19 left, this however could change with the restrictions lifted or mutation within the virus. but I am now at the point where I have begun to travel again, which leaves me practically speechless as this country is amazing and I’m dreading that final day i will leave.
Ive sort of come up trumps with this virus as I was able to work during a time when a lot of people couldn’t even leave there homes. Pretty early into the lockdown the NZ government announced that anyone currently still in the country and with their visa ending between the 2nd of April and the 9th July would automatically receive an extension to there visa until the 25th September. I fell straight into this category with my visa ending on the 11th June. Lucky me!
I’ve been in Palmy for around 8 weeks now, unfortunately due to my schedule at work, I tend to not have many days off which is a huge difference from when I was kiwi fruit pruning as I couldn’t get enough days of work. Anyhow, I’ve just completed my 28th day in a row, around 2 days a week I only do around 4 hours work and don’t start till 11:30am so have started counting those as days off, but for but the rest of them I’m working full days. Anyway, the whole time (8 weeks) I’ve worked here at the pack house I’ve only had 5 days off.
However, I’ve handed my notice in and will move on with my adventure on the 6th October. Moving on always seems so difficult but its always exciting. Although I am struggling on where to explore next.
I’m staying at Pepper Tree Hostel, its only around 2 minutes walk from the square (town centre), it’s a sort of quaint little hostel set in a 100 year old villa, one floor, several rooms and pretty cheap considering some of the other places I’ve stayed in at New Zealand. Unfortunately there’s not many people staying here, perhaps because its winter or because there’s nothing much to do here, although I wouldn’t know as I spend all my time working.
Whilst I’ve been in Palmy I haven’t really
done much, I’ve been for a few bike rides whilst I’ve been here, if your in
need of a bike in Palmy you can rent one pretty cheap from Green Bikes, I
planned to be here for 3 months and it only cost me $75 for the whole 3 months.
I cycled along a new cycle way, which is along the Manawatu river and through some woods and to Linton army base, it was a pleasant ride and only around 5km each way, unfortunately when I was returning the chain on the bike I rented snapped and I had to walk back, luckily I had enough time to take it to the shop and get it fixed, I then cycled up to an observatory and sat down to take in the views of the river meandering around the corner. I then crossed the river and cycled the opposite way where I found a bike park in the woods.
Manawatu river
I cycled to Manawatu Gorge which is just next to a small village called Ashhurst, it took around 50 minutes to get there by bike and then I did a short 3km walk around the woodland and gorge, there’s a larger trail you can do but it was 20km round trip and I arrived there just after lunch so I didn’t fancy walking in the dark. There were some beautiful views from the lookout points and a large Maori statue on the trail. The walk wasn’t very strenuous, some steep bits but altogether it was a lovely walk and something nice to do on my day off.
White Horse Rapids (Manawatu Gorge)
I have had some really cool experiences. Jill and Tony the owners of the company I work for are extremely lovely and friendly people. They have been supportive with my issues with my teeth and the problems I’ve had with the manager.
Anyway, I’ve visited their lovely farm and home three times now and had some rather unique and enjoyable experiences with them, they call themselves hobby farmers as they downsized their farm around 3 ½ years ago. They must have 200 or more lambs though. When I first visited I was going mainly to cycle around as the roads are peaceful and the fields go on for miles. Unfortunately by the time I arrived after work that evening, it was dark. Tony cooked me an amazing meal and we had some beers and chatted. The next morning when I’d had a lie in I awake to the most amazing view, hardly anything around apart from fields and lambs. I helped Tony feed the sheep and then picked up around 50-60 fence posts and loaded them into the trailer as Tony drove slowly along the edge of the field.
Sunset on the farm
My second experience felt more unique, I was invited along side another backpacker to stay at their farm and help with some sheep work. When we arrived we went out onto the fields and helped round up the sheep, we then led them to the pens ready for weighing, some of the lambs went straight into the pen whilst some of the others made their way across the cattle grid and towards the house, we just waved our arms and shouted to move them to where we needed them to be. After this we sent them down the race to get weighed one by one, then, we checked to see which lambs were clean and which ones were dirty, we gathered a few in a separate pen and then sent two down the race together so they wouldn’t be able to move, we then used a set of shears and sheared the shit of there bottoms to prevent them from attracting maggots and to make them more presentable for selling at market. This action is called “dagging”. It was incredibly fun to do and the experience was just amazing. After we finished we showered and relaxed and then were cooked an amazing steak for dinner and I had a few gin and tonics because, why not?
Trying my hand at dagging
Recently had another amazing experience, so I was invited to stay again, I went on the Friday night after work and helped with drenching (giving medicine) the lambs on the Saturday. The view from the farm was even better this morning as the sky was clear and I could see both Mt Taranaki and Mt Ruapehu in the distance. Tony got his boat ready and then we then headed to Palmerston for a short 4 hours work making noodles and then at 14:30 we left and made our way to Whanganui where we launched the boat and drove about an hour up the coast before stopping for an hour to fish. Ive never fished before so this was an incredible experience for me. Beer in hand and relaxing with the amazing views and sunset. I managed to catch 2 Snappers and 4 Blue Cod, I also caught two small sharks. From the area we were in you could see amazing views of both Mt Taranaki and Mt Ruapehu.
Unfortunately when we were just bobbing around on the boat and fishing, I got a little sea sick which is just a curse that seems to run through my family. We then returned to the Wharf and then back to Tony’s. Tony showed me how to fillet the fish and then he fried it in breadcrumbs. It was really nice and tasted perfect.
Trying my hand at DrenchingCaught a huge Snapper!
“Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced”
I arrived in Palmerston North or Palmy (as
the locals seem to call it) around 4 weeks ago now, when I first arrived I
dropped of my bag at my accommodation and then went straight to sign a contract
and learn more about the job. The owner asked if I would like to start that day
and with me having nothing to do, I agreed. Little did I know that I would then
be working for the next 9 days.
My job is in a Pack House, My role is to cut and pack vegetables, now your probably thinking, well that’s easy? It is I guess, unfortunately they need them a certain way, a certain amount of leaves or a certain weight or size. After almost a month now, I’m pretty sure I’m getting the hang of what they want.
EARLY MORNING START WITH PUMPKINS
This job is the same everyday, so when I
first start at 5-5:30am we do around 2 hours of cutting up pumpkins into halves
and quarters, then we cut the butternut squash into halves for around 45-60
minutes, we then take our break for 10-15 minutes, after the break we cut the
squash in halves and quarters and then go back to the pumpkin and make pumpkin
pieces, moving on we start to cut up the green, savoy and red cabbage into
halves and quarters (the red cabbage is possibly the toughest, one guy lasted 2
days at the Pack House before complaining that he thought his wrist was broken
due to the red cabbage, he never came back) all that’s left after this is the
cauliflower halves and florets, this is personally the worst vegetable to cut,
they require you to cut off the bottom leaves and then half it. They constantly
ask for more leaves even when it’s a particular bad cauliflower and has no
leaves to start with. They manager doesn’t appreciate little jokes like “the farmer
didn’t grow enough leaves”.
They have another section of the company where they pack Pea Straw and Lucerne into bags, its very tiring and tends to hurt your back due to the constant bending up and down. First we have to pull apart the bales of straw and then we have to mix up the two types, then we have to push them into 20l and 90l bags, it gets terribly tiring especially as all you seem to hear is “faster, faster” from the manager. I also came out with hundreds of cuts/ scratches on my wrists due to the straw and the sharp edges on the bags. I have not had to do this job for two weeks so I hope that stays the same.
WORKING WITH THE PEA STRAW!
They have recently started to create a new product which is vegetable noodles, an alternative to pasta, they are currently starting with small orders per day but due to the reaction from Countdown (a supermarket in New Zealand) this will be a good product. They have a few choices, they are making Butternut Squash, Zucchini, Beetroot, Kumara and Carrot noodles.
It is pretty tiring being on you feet for
10 or more hours a day. When I first started I was doing your basic 9-5 shift,
however now I start around 5:30am and finish when the order is complete and
this tends to be anywhere between 3-8pm. The breaks are pretty poor in my eyes.
If I start at 5:30am I get around 10-15 minutes break at around 8am or 9am for
a quick breakfast and then between 15-30 minutes at around lunchtime and that’s
it, I have discussed this with some of the newer guys that have just started
and they seem to agree that were missing a break and that its against the law. If
I end up working till 8pm, all I can think about is going back to the hostel
and going to sleep to recharge the batteries ready for another 5am start. I
started working with one day off per week, I have since changed this, as
working 6 days in a row can get a little tiring and when it comes to my day off
I have little energy to do anything.
You have to have good balance for this job,
your working all day around vegetables and once the early morning pumpkin seeds
and excess pieces miss the bins and hits the floor, it becomes excessively
slippy, even more so when you start to add in the cabbage leaves. I have
slipped plenty of times, luckily I have maintain my balance and not hit the
floor.
My second day on the job, not being used
too holding a knife for so long I came out with around 4-5 blisters between my
thumb and fore finger which became problematic when cutting for the rest of the
week.
The manager, he’s one of those guys who seems to have a need to control everything, I’ve had a couple of head to heads with him due to his certain management style. Its definitely different to what I’m use to and when I brought up that there could be cultural differences due to him being from india, he ignored this and started swearing at me. He’s very impatient and rude when it comes to training, he shows you once and then only lets you know when you’ve done it wrong. He also belittles you by talking to you like a child and shouts for no reason whatsoever, I have wondered several times about going to the owners of the company but then think that I’m only a backpacker staying for three months so my concerns may just be invalid. I just tend to pass it off and know that I only have 2 months left and then I can continue my adventure.
Update: after dreading coming into work for
the last week I finally decided to go to the owners after being fed up of
treated like shit, the owners were very sympathetic with the issue and
mentioned that its not the first time he has been spoken to about the way he
talks to and treats people. Also confirmed some of my suspicions of a possible
god complex.
Strangely I haven’t cut myself yet which
seems a little strange for me especially handling a large knife all day. I did
how ever accidently stab one of my colleagues on my first day, I was pushing
some scraps off the table and into the bin whilst I had a knife in my hand, I
mean it wasn’t a massive cut but he certainly felt it. I also recently
“accidently forced my knife into my managers finger”. He definitely wasn’t
amused. It was a genuine accident but due to the way I’m treated by him I’m
quite happy it happened.
The owners of the business are extremely
lovely. I’ve recently had a bad case of toothache in which I had an infection.
I explained to the manager my current situation and asked for the earliest day
off I could have so I could book in for a dentist appointment, this was on
Saturday and the guy offered me to have the Thursday off. On Sunday I explained
that it had got a lot worse and I would need a day off sooner, I even
compromised and said I could come into work at my usual time and just leave
earlier. He said this was a possibility. Later that day the owners were in and
obviously noticed I was suffering a little. I explained the situation to the
owners, the owner then said to me that he would ring his dentist on Monday
morning and see if there was an appointment available for me. On Monday at
around 11am he came to me and asked if I was ready, he had found me an
appointment, he then took me to the appointment, waited for me and then took me
to the pharmacist to collect my prescription of antibiotics and then returned
me to work. He then said to me that if there was anything I needed or if I just
needed to talk to someone that I could call him. Genuine guy and definitely
worth working there just to meet him.
“Jobs fill your pockets, Adventures fill your soul”
Joe Bloggs 