Week 13 – still working

On Monday, we started the new week with a workday. For us, this mainly means cutting branches for the whole day. Since we can now work almost completely independently, we are just told which row of the plantation we should cut, and off we go.

On a workday, there are three breaks for everyone: twice for 15 minutes at 10:00 am and 3:00 pm, and once for half an hour starting at 12:30 pm. We have adapted well to the rhythm and spend our breaks in our van, eating most of the time.

On Tuesday night, it finally started to rain, and it just wouldn't stop. Since we can only work in dry weather, the work on Tuesday was canceled accordingly. During heavy rain, we spent the whole day in our van. Even on Wednesday, it still wouldn’t really stop raining, so work was canceled again. We took advantage of a little break in the rain for a short walk at the Okere Falls, where we had spent the last two nights. Due to the heavy continuous rain, the river was filled with a lot of water and the waterfall was also correspondingly strong.

Fortunately, the rain finally stopped, and starting Thursday, we could finally start cutting branches again ;)

As we had the two rainy days as breaks and therefore didn't earn any money, it was clear to us that we would spend the remaining days of the week working. Thus, there is little new to report about further adventures.

One thing we can report is that the nights are currently getting quite cold. As we are further away from the coast, it cools down to 4°C to 5°C during the night. Therefore, we both wear long clothing to sleep, have two blankets, and Julian sometimes even wears a hat. The most uncomfortable part is getting up in the morning, getting out of the warm bed and into the cold.

The salary is paid out weekly here. We worked 46.5 hours in the first week and each received just under 1000 NZD in our New Zealand account. This of course motivates us to keep this up a little longer. However, in the second week, we could only work 39.5 hours. This will also be reflected in the salary.

Franzi has been diligently keeping our household diary again and settled it by the end of July. We spent 1500 NZD together in July. Workshop costs and the associated hotel costs are excluded. Thanks to the house sitting, we had significantly fewer expenses, although the subsequent hundreds of kilometers do add up at the gas station. Nevertheless, we are more than satisfied with the amount. Especially considering that we earn in one week what we spend in a month.

To conclude, here’s some Kiwi knowledge (about the plant, not the bird ;)):

In the Kiwi plant, there are male and female plants. Only the females bear the fruits, but the males are important for the fertilization of the females. The male plants only have flowers. In a row of the plantation, approximately only 1/5 of the plants are male. This seems to be enough to produce enough fruits.

The female plants can be easily recognized by short stems, from which the fruits of the past harvest hung. Male plants do not have this. (see pictures)