The day after I arrived was all about getting my work stuff
sorted. So I went to work in the morning
with Ashlie. I talked to Nikki to figure
out my schedule and the paperwork I needed to have to work legally. I had the appropriate visa, working holiday
visa, but I also needed a New Zealand Bank account and an IRD number. The bank account was pretty simple. The bank sent me a letter to my house, to
finish setting up the account. So I
would have that within the week. The IRD
was a bit more complicated. I had to go
to the post office and apply for it. For
some reason I thought I automatically got one when I applied for the Working
Holiday Visa. But no, I would get my IRD
number in two weeks. I started work on
Friday, so I would just have to be on back pay for a while.
Thrusday (2 days in) was my birthday. At 6:30AM Ashlie screamed HAPPY
BIRTHDAY! That lady is crazy. She wanted to be the first person to wish me
a happy birthday. Ashlie even made me a rum cake for my birthday, which we took to work to share. Isn't she a sweetie? After that it was a pretty
relaxed day. All I did was finish some
of my paperwork. To do this I had to
barrow Ashlie’s bike. I did a little bit
of shopping and then headed back to the house to make bread and prepare dinner. I made a honey wheat bread, steak and creamy
risotto. We had a few beers at Onitangi
beach before dinner and then headed home for wine and steak.
Friday was my first day of work at the vineyard, and I had
to get up early. Work started at 7:30
but I had to leave the house at 6am.
There is a bus system in
place on Waiheke, but it does not run regularly, more like once an hour. My own transportation was much needed. That day was quite easy, even with the early
start. We met Nikki before work and she
told Cory (her full time employee)what to do and then we headed off to do
it. Sometimes she joined us, but there
is so much to do on the vineyard that often time she’d be off doing other
things, leaving us to do the easy stuff.
That day we did leaf plucking. For this you remove the lower leaves on the
vines to help expose the grapes to the sun, and breezes. This has to be done in such a way that the
grapes are also still protected though, because otherwise you end up with sun
burnt grapes or grapes exposed to the elements.
This is easy work, but also bad for your back if you are on the wrong
side of the vine. I wasn’t very quick at
first, but it was easy to figure out.
The rest of the day consisted of chasing birds and killing
birds. The birds are the main pests on
the vines. They get into the nets
through tiny holes either near the canopy or the ground. The holes are usually created by us; when the
nets are put over the vines it’s easy to tear them when putting them in place.
The nets are put over the vines in the first place to protect the vines from
the birds. They eat all the grapes or
peck at them and spread disease. Birds
are pretty smart, if you just chase them out of the nets they come back. They remember where the holes are and where
all the juicy grapes are. In order to
ensure the crop stays good throughout the season you should really kill
them.
Bird scaring is ridiculous, no matter how gruesome the
ending is. To scare the birds we are
encouraged to make as much noise as possible.
Some people sing, others just talk loudly to each other, but most just
make weird noises. I felt like I was
just making a fool of myself, but in the end I relaxed and embraced the
silliness of it. I always wonder what
the neighbors think when we are bird scaring; making noises like dogs, birds,
fire engines and singing horribly off key.
Sometimes Nicky would come up with new things to help us bird
scare. I think her favorite, if only
because the boys had to do it, was the plastic ribbon on a stick. It made me feel like a cheerleader, shaking
the shiny ribbon under bushes trying to scare the living daylights out of the
birds. Nikki also found a blow horn we
could use as well, if we didn’t want our ears later. Next season I wouldn’t be surprised if she
buys New Years noise makers.
The cats I met in the vineyard were super fun. We chatted while we worked all day. I found the work relaxing, much different
than teaching. There isn’t much to think
about, you just do your job and do it quickly. At the end of the day Nicky told me there
might not be much work in the vines until harvest, so I knew right then that I
would need to find another job. I asked
the hospitality (wine tastings, weddings, conferences…) side of the vineyard if
they had any work and Leslie (the boss) said yes. I started at five that same day. I succeeded on getting myself a week-day job
and a weekend job! Whoo Hoo!
I found out later that it wasn’t every weekend, only occasionally. This ended up being good, because the vineyard
became my full time gig. During the week
we did things like sewing up the holes in the nets, taking brooms and pushing
the nets up to make them easier to come off later, more leaf plucking and bird
scaring. The days were long and hot, but
defiantly worth it. I would always come
home covered in dirt, but I was learning so much about the vines and how to
take care of them.
Nicky is just a sweetie.
She’s super energetic and seems very passionate about her job. She likes things getting done quickly and
correctly. This is much like me. I respect her so much. She works so hard in a man dominated field
and does a great job. She likes my work ethic and is also super flexible.
So if I needed to work the weekends for weddings or the cafe she would
give me the Friday or Monday off so I get one or two days off a week. Nicky seemed to like me enough to consider
keeping me on for the pruning season that winter. I like that idea as well.
Harvest happened a few weeks after I arrived. This is the most stressful and busiest time
of the year for any vineyard. It’s good
I got to Waiheke before the harvesting season because after it started lots of
WHV people came around looking for jobs, but there were none left. Everyone already had their crew, or had a
contractor hired for harvest days. Our main crew worked with college students
from Auckland University. Our vineyard
is associated with the University. It
was donated to them by the Goldwater (owners) 2011. The university created a wine science program
and is the only program in New Zealand that has a vineyard used just for the
students. Part of the program is that
the students have to put in mandatory hours in picking, and we needed
pickers. A big storm was coming in that
weekend, so we needed to get all the white grapes in or we would lose them
completely.
I tell you what,
picking is just back breaking work. You
bend over all day clipping grapes that are at just the right height you have to
bend your back just a little. You have
to make sure you know which grapes are nice and which are crap. And I loved it, for the first few hours. After lunch everyone gets a little bit cranky
and achy. Nicky went over all the
different diseases before we picked to make sure we knew exactly what we were
looking for. I learned so much just from
picking the grapes. Unfortunately we had
quite a bit of disease we had to look out for.
Powdery (link) was the main culprit in all the grapes this year. In the beginning everyone was slow (except
the seasoned workers), but you can’t be a perfectionist while picking or you
will never finish. And we sure as hell
didn’t want to be picking until six or later.
Some of the college students were keen on making the perfect batch of
wine, so it took them forever to pick a bin of grapes. We only worked with them really the first
week of harvest and then they sporadically helped out after that. I’m sure they had more pressing subjects in
their courses. I just can’t see picking
grapes as a super important class. Over
the whole harvest season we only stayed over our regular time, I think,
once. That’s pretty good for only having
a crew of seven people. We just must be
super pickers!
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