Motueka is famous
for its apples and kiwifruit, bringing workers from all over the
world into the orchards and packhouses each season. We worked at the
Thomas Brothers Packhouse for two months and got a first hand
impression of what seasonal work is like. We also discovered Motueka
and its surroundings a bit. Here are a few impressions of what life
was like for these two months:
Packing
From early in the year up to April the main fruit to be packed are apples. Everything from
Braeburn over Jazz to more exclusive varieties like Koru and Envy
grows in Motueka. The apples need to be washed, graded (which means
sorting out the bruises, cuts, etc and separating between grade I and
grade II), packed into boxes and stacked on pallets to be shipped all
around the world.
The same happens
to the kiwifruit, coming in from mid to end April until the end of
May. There are surprisingly many varieties of kiwifruit as well, not
only the best known Green, but also Gold, Charm and other new
varieties.
Kay and me were
packing the fruit and checking them for any kind of marks, bruises,
wrong colours/sizes and so on. Sometimes we had very quiet days with
lots of stops in between, sometimes it was really stressful and
chaotic. The job itself was rather boring, but with all the people
around us (mostly backpackers from Asia, Europe and South America) to
talk to it was really a great way to earn money without working too
hard. The supervisors were great, too, and took each problem with
heaps of patience and a smile on their face.
