After the Gold Rush

After the events of my previous post, I returned to Alexandra to begin a job as a cherry picker. Since then, things have been fairly uncertain, so I figured I would wait for some concrete developments before posting anything (a lifetime of supporting the Boston Red Sox has taught me not to tempt fate).


I had originally not planned to do any farm work during January, as Kiwi students on summer holidays would make competition for jobs even steeper. But during my time thinning apples in Roxburgh, I heard about the "red gold" that is Central Otago's cherries (oddly enough, an area with a history of gold mining). So I lined up a job in Alexandra and showed up for my first day on January 4. About one hour into the day, I was asked to pick apricots instead of cherries. Happy just to have a job, I accepted. But there's a reason they don't refer to apricots as "orange gold."

Apricot harvesting is more difficult than cherry harvesting, as you carry more weight at a time and receive less money per bag. Pickers are guaranteed more work because apricots are hardier than cherries, but the work is much more intense than thinning was. While thinning, I was generally left alone to work and received two or three visits per day from my supervisors. Picking requires everybody to work in the same area so as to fill bins (about 30 bags' worth of apricots) more quickly, and the supervisor is an almost constant presence. Harvesting is more time-sensitive than thinning, and the pressure to get the job done quickly passes all the way down from the orchard managers to the pickers. Pickers, being the bottom rung of the ladder, hear constant complaints about the color, size, and firmness of the fruit they pick. And even if every bag is perfect, there will be good fruit left on the trees that must be removed, and of course, constant pressure to earn minimum wage (if you're not earning minimum, the orchard is forced to top up your pay and gets fewer apricots from you). I found earning minimum very challenging, meaning I did not feel very secure in my position. It was also discouraging to watch a group of 20 pickers dwindle to about 8 in less than a week. When I realized how far I'd wavered from my original plan for the month of January (not only was I doing farm work, I wasn't even doing the farm work I'd hoped to do), I decided to move on.

Luckily, right when that occurred to me, Central Otago received its first serious rain since I've been here (late November). That gave me two days off to plan, and a quick job search found a café in Arthur's Pass looking for a general kitchen hand. In a reminder of why I love New Zealand so much, I sent off a fairly speculative job application, which got me a reply by phone within an hour. Within two hours of sending the application via email, I had a new job.

Arthur's Pass is a small village on the train route between Greymouth and Christchurch, in the heart of the Southern Alps. The train that passes through it is considered one of the most beautiful train rides in the world, and tourism continues throughout the year (the scenery is better in the winter). Although this job will prevent me from seeing Southland during the summer, it will hopefully allow me some stability over the next few months. As I need to renew my passport, having a consistent address will be useful. And as much as I enjoy the simplicity and exercise of seasonal farm work, I've had much better experiences working in cafés.

Spending 9 hours per day picking apricots doesn't leave much time for photography. But a couple coworkers and I found a creative way to release the stress and frustration of hearing "too green!" every time we dropped a new bag. See below.