Week 12 – Work, work, no house building

On Monday, it was time for us to head to our first job in New Zealand.

At 9 am, we had to be at the Kiwi plantation to meet our employers. We didn't really know what to expect, as the previous communication through Facebook had been rather sparse.

After a brief greeting, we were immediately handed the employment contract along with a form containing all important information about us, such as visa status, tax number, and bank account.

Once the paperwork was done, we received a short briefing on safety issues and organizational details, and we were ready to go. We were given a fanny pack and a garden shear (of course made in Germany) and found ourselves working on the plantation just 10 minutes after arrival.

Our main task is to trim the kiwi plants. It’s important to recognize which branches need to be cut and which need to be kept for the next harvest season. There can't be too few branches left, but also not too many. In the next step, the branches must be tied to the existing wires. The tying of the branches will be done later by another team.

What makes the work particularly exhausting is that the wires are suspended at about 1.8 meters high, meaning you have to constantly look upwards and work overhead. For Franzi, this is even more tiring than for Julian. We mostly notice this in our lower back and neck. The shoulders are actually okay.

After working alongside our Samoan supervisor Matu on the first and second day, we were allowed to work mostly alone and independently starting from the third day. We have put in a lot of effort from the very beginning and want to do our job very carefully and well. This has definitely been noticed and confirmed to us by Matu, which is why we received his trust early on and were allowed to work independently. The boss also seems to like us very much and is satisfied with our work.

During the first week, we worked for 6 days (a total of 46.5 hours) and our bodies are in urgent need of a break today. However, we are already noticing an adjustment of our bodies to the work, and the pain after each workday is fading away faster in the evening. We hope this trend continues and we get used to the work better so that our backs will also hurt less in the coming weeks.

For our work, we receive minimum wage plus an 8% holiday pay. The minimum wage in New Zealand is currently 23.50 NZD, which is equivalent to 11.50 EUR at the current exchange rate. With the holiday pay supplement, we are at 12.70 EUR per hour. We opt to have the holidays paid out, as we logically do not wish to take them. However, we are only paid when we work on the plantation.

Here, the working hours are quite flexible. Basically, the workday starts at 8 am and goes until 5 pm. However, if one wants to start later or finish earlier, that is not a problem, and the boss is understanding. In principle, we could also work 7 days a week (which some do here).

Many of the other workers also live on the Kiwi plantation, residing in a small house and a few shipping containers. We are allowed to use the toilets there and get a little insight into the living quarters. We do not know exactly how many people live there, but it definitely gives the impression that many people are living in relatively small space. All the workers are certainly immigrants, and one could get the impression that their situation is being exploited, and likely the rent for the containers is not exactly low.

The plantation is about 10 minutes away from the nearest village where there is also a free parking space for us. However, due to regulations, we are not allowed to stay overnight the entire time, as only 3 nights are permitted per parking spot every 30 days. Therefore, we will definitely switch our overnight spots and try to utilize all available free parking spaces within a radius of about 30 minutes. Let's see how we manage this in the upcoming weeks.

After cutting countless kiwi branches for seven hours on Tuesday, it was time for us to head to Whitianga to pick up our van. Luckily, the spare part was delivered on time, and the workshop was able to repair our van on Tuesday afternoon.

The drive from the plantation to Whitianga took almost 4 hours and we were very relieved when we finally arrived at the workshop. But that was not all, as we wanted to work again on Wednesday, it meant we had to head back right away. However, we decided to drive only halfway back, stop for the night, and finish the rest of the journey the next morning.

Sunday was our day off, so we set off on Saturday towards Whakatane, a small town in the Bay of Plenty. After a beautiful and quiet night at a campsite right by the sea, Sunday began with a lovely sunrise. We then enjoyed a relaxed morning before heading off for a short hike at the Kohi Point Scenic Reserve.

From the viewpoint of this hike, we had a beautiful view over the sea and the foreground islands of the bay. One of the islands is White Island, New Zealand's only active volcanic island. We could also see the smoke rising from the island. White Island last erupted in 2019, and 22 people lost their lives. Sulfur was mined on the island before. Today, the island is uninhabited, and the volcano's activities are constantly monitored. Apparently, about 1000 earthquakes occur around the island daily. However, they are so weak that they can only be detected by measuring instruments.

We spend the night again nearby the plantation before going back to work tomorrow.