After our 3-week road trip on the South Island, with lots of wonderful impressions, we wanted to earn some money again. The offer of winegrowing work in Cromwell came in very handy and so we started working on November 6th. Cromwell is located about 40km east of Queenstown on Lake Dunstan and lives from agriculture, viticulture and, above all, fruit growing.
Since work started at 6:30 a.m., the alarm went off at 5 a.m. The first few days were very hard; neither of us had had to get up so early in a long time and, above all, we hadn't worked so physically strenuously. Our tasks in viticulture included thinning out the individual shoots and protecting them with wire ropes. But the worst thing was the so-called “bud rubbing”, which meant removing the individual buds on the trunk of all vines.
Luckily, our team consisted of very funny backpackers and a few Islanders (Vanuatu) who came to work every day with a big grin and in a good mood. We often did something with our work colleagues after work, for example Tobi goes to football with some of them every Thursday. Some of our colleagues will also work at CentralPac during the cherry season.
In total we worked there for 3 1/2 weeks and spent the weekends with some of our team or alone in beautiful places. For example, we went with the others to the so-called “Blue Pools”. As you can see from the pictures, the water is very clear. The water temperature is around 10 degrees, but that didn't stop us from jumping in. In the evening we all grilled together and spent the night together at a campsite.
On another weekend we went to Paradise. This place is not called Paradise for nothing: Surrounded by purple and pink lupins, there are always surprisingly large mountains and in between some small or larger icy rivers flow. Because the region is so beautiful, it also serves as a filming location for some Lord of the Rings and Narnia scenes.
