Our first night in the bus was a comfortable one. There were a few cockroaches, mosquitos and spiders around but we just tended to ignore them. John had told us the night before that we could start work around 9, so we weren't in any rush to get up and out. After getting some washing done using our portable washing machine (we could do washing through the owners washing machine but at an hours work for 3 washes, we didn't reckon it was worth it), we ate our morning porridge and headed up to the house to wait for John. He was bang on and he led us down to one of the many fields of grape vines that were growing in the premises. The vines we were starting on were of the Pinot Gris variety, which make a dry, white wine. Our job was a pretty simple one. Pluck off the leaves that are covering up the grapes that are growing. We also had to hook or tie the vines on to the guiding wires if they were out of control but that wouldn't be very often. Plucking off the leaves would expose the grapes to sunlight (there was plenty of that around), wind and a spray that would be applied to prevent mildew. John showed us how to do it on the first vine before Charlotte and I took a side each and headed up our first row. We felt we started off quite slow, which we would, and that we were taking off too many leaves. When we started to get the hang of it though, we were taking off just enough and flying along the row. It helped that as the row went along the vines got smaller. Come lunch, having worked 4 hours, we were probably half way down the row. Despite only working 2 and a quarter hours after lunch, we managed to finish off the first row and make a decent start on the next one. We stopped due to a mixture of needing the toilet and large grey clouds rolling in and threatening rain. John and Aynsley were pretty happy with what hours we worked, as long as come the end of the week they totalled 40. So we finished our first day having done 12 and a half hours, which just about covered the accommodation. We'd been invited to dinner at the house with John and Aynsley as well as their 2 children, Jaluka and India, so come 6, we headed up to join them. Just before, Charlotte had made a phone call to a local motel that had a job going and arranged an interview for the following day, which was very positive so early on in the stay. As the family are vegetarians we had macaroni cheese for dinner, which didn't really bother us, as it's no different to what we usually have anyway. We were offered wine with it which we gratefully accepted and spoke about travelling mostly, before moving on to music. They tried getting us into some Kiwi music but honestly, it was all slightly bland and similar. We had a good evening and really enjoyed the red wine that they make, despite not being red wine drinkers. We left around 10 and settled in for another night in the house bus.
Tuesday 15th November
John had told us when we arrived that they weren't expecting much of Tuesday and low and behold, we awoke to pouring rain. He'd also said he didn't expect us to work in the rain, so we didn't bother heading out. To be fair, Charlotte had an interview at 10, so she had an excuse. I'd said that if it was dry, I would work but if it was raining, I would accompany her to the interview. At half 9 we dashed to the car and drove into Kerikeri and to the motel. It was bang in the centre, so we couldn't fault its location. I sat in the car whilst Charlotte headed in for the moment of truth. It wasn't really an interview in the end. Charlotte filled out a form of questions while a couple of ladies scrutinised her CV. She was told that she probably wasn't long term enough but that they would ask the boss and see what he said. Charlotte seemed pretty convinced that she would get it as they needed someone desperately. Despite this, we still hedged our bets and headed out of town to an Olive Oil bottling place that had hired people from the vineyard before. Charlotte went in with a name to ask for as well as being able to name drop Ake Ake. She came out very positive and it seemed she had been in the right place at the right time. The lady she had spoken to had told her she was just putting together a job and took her name and number just incase. The fact Charlotte was asked if she could work 8-4 Monday to Friday made it seem like a sure thing. We just had to keep our fingers crossed. After the short job hunt, we spent our time looking round a few shop before retiring to the house bus for lunch. We were stuck inside for the rest of the day as the weather never eased. Instead, we planned to do an extra long day the following day to make up for lost time. We braved the shower that we'd have to put up with for 8 weeks and hated every minute of it. We'd been told that the hot water tank was small and whenever we'd had a shower so far, the hot water had run out on us. We had burgers for dinner though, which went some way to cheering us up.
Wednesday 16th November
With the previous day having been such a washout, we were determined to get a good amount of hours under our belts and get ahead of the game. We started at half 8 and, despite the strong winds, it was a pleasant day out amongst the vines. After lunch, Charlotte received a phone call asking if she could report for training at the motel the following morning at 9. We were very pleased with how quickly Charlotte had found alternative employment and would definitely be grateful for the extra income. We had to knock off at 5 after doing 7 and a half hours each, as we had a pub quiz to attend. John had told us he'd come and get us just after 7, so we squeezed in a horrible shower each and wolfed down our tuna and pasta just in time. The quiz was at a pub called Rock Salt in the centre of Kerikeri. We were introduced to the other members of our team, Hamish and a lady who's name we've forgotten already and sat down to await the questions. The rounds were pretty eclectic but also pretty standard to a pub quiz that isn't the Henty Christmas edition. John had given us the lowdown before we got there and told us that their weak subjects were sport and, let's say Popular Culture. I was pretty confident I could help out with sport but Our knowledge of celebrities could be written down on a piece of confetti. We had sport, film, music and some other categories like alphabet and number related ones. Unsurprisingly, Charlotte and I struggled on questions relating to New Zealand in any subject but there were a few answers that the team wouldn't have got without our input, such as a Cribbage related one and the majority of the sport questions, in the end we came 5th but did win a lucky dip price of what we think was a $30 tab on our next visit. I love a pub quiz and it was a nice change from our usual nights in. John wouldn't be in attendance the next week, so it would just be Charlotte and myself with our 2 new quiz friends.
Thursday 17th November
Charlotte was due to report for her first day of cleaning training at 9, so was up at 7 getting ready. Whilst she ventured off into the unknown, I headed out in to the field to carry on plucking leaves. I obviously didn't get as far as I would have with Charlotte's help but I felt I'd covered enough ground when I took cover from a passing rain cloud after 2 and a half hours work. I had wanted to work longer but didn't fancy getting soaked to the skin. Typically, by the time I'd got back to the bus, the rain had passed and there was beautiful blue skies in every direction. I considered going back out but before I realised, I'd locked the key in the bus. Being a bloke, I refused to admit defeat and go and ask for a spare key. Instead, I formulated a plan that involved slipping something round the latch and then pulling it open. I'd done it once about 10 years before when I got stuck in the bathroom at home and had to break a comb to slip the lock, so I was pretty confident. The only problem was I didn't have anything that I could get round the latch. Fortunately, there was a conveniently placed ladder next to the bus, which I put up on some slippery decking and just about managed to get my shoulder far enough through the window to grab my cap, which I used to shuffle the key close enough for me to be able to reach it. It wasn't as satisfying as the great comb escapade but I was pretty chuffed with myself and thought I deserved lunch. Rather than face the vines alone again, I waited for Charlotte to arrive back and tell me about her first day at the motel. For this bit, I did suggest that Charlotte write it as it's easier for her to write about what happened to just her but she would have just ended up putting “it was alright” and it would be a bit pointless. So I'll just say that she did think it was alright, pretty straightforward and she enjoyed it as it brought out the OCD in her. By this time I'd had a 2 and a half hour lunch break and couldn't really be bothered to face the vines again but we went out and did a couple of hours each to keep up to date. Despite the small kitchen set up we had in the bus, Charlotte managed to cook up a pretty impressive veggie curry for dinner. Charlotte has taken on doing the cooking, as there are very few lights in the bus, so it can get very dark. There had been a lot of rain recently and it was evident with numerous slugs and snail trails in the bus. It's safe to say we weren't exactly enjoying our time in the bus so far but we were persevering.
Friday 18th November
This was a pretty straightforward day. I spent 4 hours in the morning putting my rain jacket on and then taking my rain jacket off and plucking some leaves on the side. Charlotte spent 5 hours cleaning at the motel. In an attempt for more money, Charlotte popped in to the onsite café when she got home to let them know that she may be available during the evenings for dishwashing. We had every intention of heading out to do some more plucking but, thanks to the constant showers, we decided against the idea and left the final 4 hours of the weeks until the following day. We had an easy veggie stir fry for dinner and then settled in to the bug infested bedroom for another night of bites. Charlotte had nipped to the shops on her way home from the motel the previous day and had picked up a bug spray device that we had mounted on the wall. So far, it hadn't seemed to take effect, so we changed the setting to every 15 minutes rather than every 30 to see if it would make a difference. It certainly didn't make a difference to the slug that was crawling along the wall just above my head. I chucked him in our compost box to get him out of the way.
Saturday 19th November
The weather was finally starting to show a bit of an improvement, although it didn't make much difference to us, as we only had a couple of hours each left to do to reach the target of 40 for the week. As John was spraying the vines where we'd already plucked, we started at the opposite end and manage to get almost 2 shorter rows done and dusted in the short amount of time. A few weeks before, Charlotte had popped our tent and camping gear on a New Zealand site called Trade Me. We'd stuck it on for $250 and kept our fingers crossed. By the time the auction had come to an end, we'd had 1 bid on it and it had sold for the $250. Despite having put a title saying that it wouldn't be available till mid November, the person who bought it would be in Kerikeri to pick it up. After a few weeks of tense negotiation, he eventually agreed that he would come up from Auckland, the weekend after the 15th, which is the current weekend I'm writing about. We weren't sure exactly what day or time he was coming, so just had to wait him out. After lazing around for the remainder of the day, Charlotte eventually received an email telling us that he would be round the following day to pick it up. John and Aynsley had told us about an event happening in town to coincide with the half marathon that had taken place earlier in the day. It was a street party and they would be hosting a stool there. We thought we'd kill some time in the evening and head in to town to check it out. The main shopping area had been closed off and there were stalls flanking either side of the road. We parked up and heading in. It turned out to be slightly underwhelming but we guessed that it is seen as a pretty big night for the locals of the small town. There was probably aboust 50 stalls, 45 of which were representing local vineyards and shifting 100ml glasses of their wares for about $7 a pop. It didn't seem worth spending our money that we'd earned on a vineyard, in wine from various other vineyards. The other 5 stalls were selling usual street party/fayre fare, like candy food, donuts and chips. We didn't hang around for long, wandered round the town briefly, swung by the supermarket and headed home. The supermarket trip was for some pittas for dinner and a bottle of New Zealand's own soft drink, that they have always, to us at least, seemed pretty chuffed about. It's called Lemon and Paeroa (L&P for short) and was originally made from lemons and Paeroa spring water in the town of Paeroa, which is at the base of the Coromandel Peninsula. The slogan claims that the drink is “world famous in New Zealand”. Unfortunately, it's now made by Coca Cola and made in Auckland rather than Paeroa. Dinner was a left over veggie curry, which was left over from a couple of nights before. We washed it down with some L&P and, despite both liking it, were both wondering what the kiwis found so amazing about it. Due to the half marathon, Charlotte had a busy day ahead of her the following day, so we were tucked up with the spiders and slugs bright and early.
James and Charlotte
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