Week 48 - Easter Week

This week, hard work continued on the farm. The current task of pruning the plants has finally been completed. The new task that we can now handle independently is significantly less strenuous - folding and preparing boxes.

Here, we need to fold and prepare either smaller shipping boxes for shipping within New Zealand or larger boxes for international shipping.

Preparation involves folding paper that will later be placed in the boxes. Wool also needs to be cut from a large roll into suitable pieces that will serve as padding for the flowers.

The task is completely weather-independent and definitely a lot more relaxed than pruning.

Additionally, unfortunately, one of our stamps broke. Julian couldn't let it go and took it upon himself to fix it after work hours. After everything was expertly disassembled, the broken parts were quickly identified. Unfortunately, they were shattered in such a way that they couldn't be glued. Therefore, Julian quickly recreated the parts in CAD. Perhaps a friend of our boss can 3D print the parts and we can still repair the stamp. A new stamp would cost 130 Euros and would be imported from Austria.

Fortunately, our boss was very pleased with us, so we both received an extra day off.

A small highlight of the week was setting up the electric fence for the sheep and the subsequent relocation. The existing sheep were picked up as they urgently need shearing. However, seven new sheep came in as replacements :)

This week we also learned that our farm has a small appearance in the image video from Air New Zealand. For anyone interested, here’s the link to the YouTube video:

Of New Zealand. For New Zealand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufqMzspNc7s

Here you can see our boss in full action ;)

Franzi was, of course, again busy with her work and finally had some time to describe her tasks in detail this week:

The vans returned by customers need to be prepared so they can be issued to the next customers.

This includes:

• Washing the van from the outside at the self-service car wash
• Clearing out the van
• Vacuuming
• Washing the kitchen equipment in the in-house kitchen, including the commercial dishwasher
• Cleaning the gas stove
• Wiping metal parts and plastic covers in the car with the appropriate cleaner
• Wiping the mattress
• Removing and replacing the bed cover
• Cleaning all windows inside and outside
• Restocking the van

The biggest challenge is to clean thoroughly and meticulously. Franzi is certainly in her element with her non-existent cleaning obsession ;-)

All the bedding is collected by a cleaning service and washed. We wash our cleaning rags ourselves, as well as the dish towels that are provided to customers in the van.

When restocking the van, there is a specific guideline on how it should look. If items are missing, we restock them.

Additional orders from customers, such as chairs, tables, or a second duvet, are managed by the customer service.

We at 'Grooming' only handle the same standard equipment.

The team consists of 3 girls (all travelers) and the supervisor.

There’s also a service technician who inspects the vans for technical issues and roadworthiness. Whenever something is broken in the van or doesn't work as it should, we call him and he fixes it. Since we all work together in a large workshop, the commute is short.

As the business is open 7 days a week and holidays don't matter, Franzi also worked over the Easter weekend. However, holidays are compensated with +50% pay, so working wasn't that bad.

The branch manager is a New Zealander. This is clearly noticeable in the work mentality and organization (which is often completely lacking).

But luckily, Franzi doesn't have to care about this much longer, as she will finish her contract there in less than 2 weeks.

Then it's time for us to pack our backpacks and head to the South Seas!

Even though the Easter holidays are celebrated here (on Good Friday, even the supermarkets were closed), we barely noticed Easter.

As a small Easter surprise, we hid little things for each other and thus celebrated Easter a bit after all.