Chapter 8: The Job

The Job

What did I end up doing in Tauranga for almost 2 months? I worked in a factory, a kiwifruit puree factory to be precise. Every morning I woke up around 6 am so that I could eat before driving ~20 minutes to the factory in Te Puna. For most of the weeks I gave a ride to another one of the women who lived at the hostel and that was wonderful. Occasionally (given that it's becoming winter here in NZ) we were treated to incredible sunrises (though the whole, let's take pictures thing was far from our thoughts). The factory is composed of two major parts: the factory and the fill room. I spent the majority of my time in the fill room, all decked out in a hair net, coat, gloves and crocs:

In the fill room were three “stations” where one could work. First, boxes had to be constructed – I made so many that I got super fast at making them, it was awesome. When we were on top of our game this is what all the boxes looked like:

Due to trade secrets these are the only pictures I was able to take.

After the boxes were constructed they were taken to the next station where they were filled with kiwifruit puree up to 20 kilos. The next (and final fill room) station involved a magic machine that took all the air out of the bag and sealed it closed. Then the bag was folded and the box put through a taping machine before being sent out to be stacked. Occasionally we would add seed to the puree which served for some difference. While the actual stations were rather repetitive we changed which ones we did several times daily which helped create variation.

The other job I did was done in the factory. To work in the factory I had to keep my hairnet and gloves on but trade the crocs for gumboots and the coat for an apron. Because of noise I also put on noise blocking earmuffs. Then I would put on two additional pairs of gloves and plastic sleeves before standing in front of a conveyor belt and sorting out appropriate kiwifruit as it rotated by me.

I ended up with a lot of time to be somewhat lost in thought which was fairly unique. We also did some listening to music and chatting. Overall it was a good experience, although not one I am keen to repeat anytime soon, factory work is pretty boring and I'm lucky I ended up at a good place with fun people. :)

Chapter 7: Kiwi As, Eh?

Renee and Moose topped in Paeroa on the way to Auckland via bus. Lemon and Paeroa is a kiwi soda that Renee is almost fond of, it's strange. The brief history of it is that there is a natural mineral spring in Paeroa and after its discovery it is now mixed with lemon (and sugary syrup) to make a soda...well that's the story anyway. Coca-Cola has now taken over production so it's not as...native as it used to be. Regardless, a photo-op :P  

 

Good-bye Stuart and Tammy!!! Until we meet again (either in the States or Northern Ireland) :D

XP: # miles from Fort Collins to Belfast: 4,322 Miles (not so far :P)

Chapter 6: Hamilton and, more importantly, RUGBY!

Having such a good time with the weekend travels Renee and Lucia and Petunia (Ray was busy so Moose stayed home too) decided to take a day trip to Hamilton and see RUGBY!!! (Renee LOVES rugby. So does Petunia.) On the way they had planned to stop at a cheesemaking demonstration but there was no cheese being made on the day of the visit so instead they had coffee and then walked along the Blue Spring for a while.

The Blue Spring is a natural spring which supplies water to a nearby town and accounts for about 70% of the bottled water from New Zealand. They were all quite surprised at the crystal clearness of the water and found that it tasted quite nice. The surrounding area was also very pretty.

Once they arrived in Hamilton the girls (and Moose) visited some shops and had a surprisingly delicious Indian dinner from a mall shop.

SO GOOD! And cheap!!

Then it was off to the rugby game! Lucia was surprised at Renee's enthusiasm and strong interest in the game itself.

Then was a short visit to the Hamilton night market and a fairly quick drive back given that there were no stops.

XP: Average speed of the Blue Spring: 42 cubic meters/minute (that's 9,240 gallons!)

Chapter 5: Tongariro Crossing

The next long weekend Ray, Lucia and Renee were joined by Kassia (from Canada) to attempt the Tongariro Crossing. The crossing is a 19km “walk” (read hike) that traverses the Tongariro national park. Tongariro park is home to Mt. Ngauruhoe which provided the filming location for Mt. Doom in Lord of the Rings. Hikers have the opportunity to summit the mountain as a “small detour” to the rest of the walk. Renee decided not to attempt the climb but Ray and Kassia were keen and so made the attempt. Lucia and Renee decided to pass on Mt. Doom and instead summit Mt. Tongariro (which is much easier and shorter). The walk is supposed to take a total of 8 hour with a three hour round trip detour for Mt. Doom and a 1.5 hour detour for Mt. Tongariro. All in all it took the travelers about 10 hours including their rest stops and detours. Many many pictures were taken on the way, here is a lovely selection.

On the way back the crew stopped at Lake Taupo for a coffee (with a great view)

Just outside Taupo to see a waterfall and visit a honey store

We didn't actually do this because it was expensive

This bee is a New Zealand icon thanks to a royal baby

And at Rotarua for a walk-about and dinner (and photo opportunities).

XP: FAIL since Renee forgot Moose, Petunia and Elgamore. Oops. NO XP for RENEE. Moose, Petunia and Elgamore can have an arbitrary 930.

Chapter 4: Public Holidays and Live Music

Public holidays in New Zealand require days off or time and a half pay so many places that employ backpackers simply stop business on public holidays including Renee's job (working at a Kiwifruit Puree factory, more on that later) and so within the span of two weeks Renee had a four day weekend, a three day week and a three day weekend thanks to Easter (Good Friday and Easter Monday!) and ANZAC day. Although Ray, Lucia and Renee toyed with the idea of going to Wellington for the four day weekend the weather proved to be problematic for such a long drive (or looked like it would be) and so it was determined that they would stay in Tauranga which turned out to be an excellent plan. Tauranga hosts the national jazz festival over Easter weekend so in addition to making some extra delicious meals and having mini-adventures Renee got to see a funk band

and a pretty rockin big band (with a bass trombone!!!!) and a singer who was quite lovely. Renee was reminded of how much she LOVES live music and jazz specifically. She was quite surprisingly inspired to (again) learn some jazz standards and since she has not a lot to practice it may actually happen this time! Moose and Petunia have been doing a good job encouraging Renee to practice though she has been less likely to play every day given the nature of communal living.

Other great weekend activities included making spinach tortellini from scratch and shopping!! (Lucia and Renee LOVE shopping together, though they don't get to go often) Overall a wonderful weekend of fun and not working :)

XP: Number of days off: 7

Renee's Perspective: FRIENDS!!!!!

Random happenstance is great. When I got to Bell Lodge (the hostel I've been staying at while in Tauranga) I felt like I was late because it had taken me longer to get here than I thought it would and I had taken a “wrong turn” and ended up taking the long way to get here (going through Te Puke instead of straight up from Rotarua) and got lost in the crazyness of exits and smartphone awkward directions and lack of map that happens when you are in a new city and driving on the highway (or motorway since we're in NZ and that's what they call it here). As it happens, all of these delays put me at Bell Lodge check in right when a Dutch woman named Lucia was checking in. We were put in the same room and she asked if I wanted to have dinner with her – I said yes, that would be lovely as long as it's not meat and she said that she was trying to be vegetarian. We had dinner and a lovely conversation about food and something magical happened. Somehow we reached an unspoken agreement within that first night that we should have dinner together every night – alternating cooks and it has been brilliant! I think on day three we invited another one of our two other roommates to join us, he is from Germany and goes by Ray. He is also trying the vegetarian diet (sometimes even venturing into vegan) and sharing dinners and conversation at the end of every day with them has been one of the best experiences of this hostel. Lucia and I have also started writing down all the recipes (well, as close as we can get) of the things we have all made because it's SOOO good!!! We've had traditionally inspired food from The Netherlands, Germany and the States as well as several “fusion” dishes.

We had a fourth roommate (also German) but she worked in a packhouse and we rarely saw her because she worked very long hours. When we did interact it was always lovely and she would have been welcome in our dinner rotation but she was usually gone from 6am-8pm at which point she would eat, make lunch and go to sleep very quickly.

Lucia, Ray and I have also had a few “excursions” which are/will be detailed in other posts and it has been simply wonderful to have people to travel around with – especially since they have encouraged me to do things and try things I would not have been inclined towards otherwise.

In the second week we celebrated Lucia's birthday at a Mexican restaurant and it was MIGHTY FINE. Sometimes mass amounts of good food with good company (and a few margaritas) are all you need for a great birthday!

There have also been some extremely positive interaction with many other people at the hostel and as people have left it's been a little more difficult to say good-bye because the longer people stay the closer friends we become :) I hope to meet up with many of these people again in other travels either around NZ or visiting their countries or having them visit the wonderful state of Colorado (assuming I stay there once I get back...)!

Chapter 3: Selling Fruit, Roadside

Can you spot Moose?

***Sorry for some of the redundant information, see it was SO LONG since I wrote anything that I forgot what I had already told all of you lovely people about and then...well....things....but I'm sure you appreciate the reminder anyway :P ***

Upon arriving in Tauranga Renee found the hostel she would be staying at for a while which had promised assistance in finding work. The first morning Renee was there she happened to be standing around, eating breakfast and deciding what to do with her empty day, when the owner asked if anyone wanted to work. Resolved to say yes to things Renee said ok and went with a German girl named Annette to work with a guy on his property – doing some cleaning and weeding and such. He was nice enough and it was an interesting introduction to the working style of a backpacker. He mentioned further work opportunity for the next day but Renee was not as much interested and so allowed others in the hostel to have the opportunity to make money while she had a day to explore her surroundings.

Shortly thereafter the hostel owner, Shiree, asked her if she would like to sell fruit by the roadside during the weekend. Still resolved to have new experiences, and wanting to earn SOME money instead of just spending Renee accepted and drove to Peys Pa where she was introduced to Corey who got her set up in a large diesel van which she then drove to Te Puke and set up selling on the side of the road. On the one hand she had a lovely day in the sun, talking to people, bagging fruit and staring at the ever growing wad of cash that she accumulated. One of the things she found surprising was the immediate level of trust that was given to her with almost no questions asked. She was essentially left alone with the keys to a van and a bunch of cash and trusted to come back with everything intact. Since Renee is a trustworthy person she did all of these things and was asked if she would like to return the following weekend which she did. The next weekend she drove a larger truck which was quite the experience! Kind of fun but challenging and a little scary as well. Unfortunately the weather was not as good and so many people were not there for one reason or another and it was a much slower day. And it began raining which kind of ruined the whole “fun in the sun” part of the job. Still Renee had a good enough time and moose helped (as well as having a good book) but with the oncoming public holiday weekends and making plans with her roommates Renee decided that she would not be selling fruit out of a truck on the weekend any further. She had also found a job (thanks to Shiree and again being in the right place at the right time) and so would be making a steady income without fruit selling on the weekends. Nevertheless, a good and interesting experience to have had!

Not a bad view as things go :)

Where is Moose?

XP: Amount of money Renee collected from customers: 1706