Life in Havelock North

Fruit Picking - Done

At last the ordeal is over! For our final week we ended up working with pears. They turned out to be much nicer than apples and at times larger. It all came to an end when we had to pick pears that were the same size as golf balls! Needless to say it was taking us a fair while to fill the bin and so we sensed our time working on orchards was over. Unfortunately it wasn't really a happy ending to the picking. We found out that we should have been given a contract at the start of our employment and that would have explained to us about our rights and rates of pay. As we didn't have this we didn't earn quite as much as we should of. The person we worked for was breaking the law and our only hope now is that he pays our tax so we can claim it back when we leave NZ. It has been a sad ending to our picking career but we have learnt a lot about this type of work and will certainly be buying fair trade from now on!

The Dingles!!!!
For the last week we have had the pleasure of staying at Chateaux Dingle! The lovely Warwick and Marilyn rescued us from the campsite and invited us (two randoms) to stay with them while we finished our picking work......and a bit longer! While we have been with them we have had the pleasure of joining them in various events throughout the week such as Marty's music ( a pre school music session), helping to sort out the charity shop for the church and going to Bible in school lessons. we have also learnt many useful life skills - how to play the card game 500 (watch out Stephen and Kirsten!) and make bacon and egg pie (yes Zoe cooked it!). It has been great fun and we will miss being with them......and Marilyn's cooking (absolutely fantastic) and of course Warwick's jokes (some of which are funny!!!!) and not forgetting Suzy (even though she slept on our clothes!).

St. Peter's Church

While staying in Havelock we have been attending the most fantastic church. It has been full of welcoming and friendly people. We have never met such a interesting, varied, kind and caring community. We especially like the C U 4 T service in the evening. This involved a meal before a more informal service. David was attracted by the food and Zoe by the great music! Some of the best talks and conversations we had were in the kitchen either preparing the meal of washing up - when David wasn't flicking people with tea towels. We have made some great friends with whom we hope to keep in contact.

Hit the Road Jack
Tomorrow as leave to carry on our travels. For fans of Lord of the Rings tomorrow we will be making our way towards 'Mordor' which we plan to climb on Tuesday weather dependent and from which we will have a great view of 'Mount Doom'. From then it is down to Wellington for a short stay in the capital and then across the cook strait to the south island.

P.S. Marilyn and Warwick - can we book in at the chateaux for later in the week??? David will rid you of any flies in the kitchen!

Sufers strike again

The fruit picking experience!!!

Q and A about fruit picking

What better way to tell you all about our fruit picking experience so far than a few Q and A......

Q. What type of apple have we been picking for the last few weeks?

A. Galaxy (of the royal gala variety)

Q. How heavy is a bin of apples?

A. 1/2 ton

Q. How long does it take us to pick one bin of apples on average?

A. 1 1/2 hours

Q. How many tons of apples have we picked in total?

A. 19 1/2 tons

Q. How many hours do we work each day?

A. 10

Q. What is new Zealand minimum wage?

A. $13 and hour (approx 5 pounds)

Q. On our worst day of picking apples how much did we earn?

A. $5 each per hour (approx 2 pounds)

Q. Do we still pick apples?

A. NO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Q. What are we doing now?

A. Picking pears

Q. Is it any better?

A. We'll let you know!!!!!!!

Oh and one last Q and A.......

Q. Should you wash your apples before eating them?

A. Definitely yes! You never know where the fruit picker has had a pee..........but don't worry our batch is being sent to America!

Cricket
It was a wet and rainy day so sadly we could not fruit pick (apparently they bruise too easily in the rain) so off we went to the cricket. It was raining so play had been delayed and as we turned up there were two "old boys" leaving so I asked them if the match was still on. They told us they thought there would be no play but told us to go look at the ground and gave us their tickets. So we went in to then see an excellent match where India destroyed NZ! It was fantastic! We sat on the grass bank with all the dancing Indians.

Church

We have found a really good church. It is just across the road from our campsite. It is a small church with a mostly older morning congregation and a mostly mad evening congregation! On our first day we were made feel so welcome, we were invited out to lunch which was such a treat for us. We also went to the evening service again because they serve food beforehand. This was meant to be a service for the local community but instead they ended up attracting mental and physically disabled people. It is so much fun! As one old boy described it to us..."It's organised chaos!" We are moving in with a couple from the church tomorrow and next week is our last week of picking! Hooray!