The end of the Kiwi's (the fruit, not people or birds)

So a lot has been happening. I'm going to have to break this up intoa few postings again, splitting work on the kiwi orchards and fun times.

I ended talking about starting work in the Tauranga area. We had a fun time there as a group of 6. We rented two different AirBNB's which where awesome, especially when compared to the hostel. Most nights we took turns cooking for the group. I made a baked lemon pepper chicken with twiced backed potatoes the first time, and cooked a meat pasta sauce with spaghetti squash the second time. It was really good. Other than that, we went out a few times to pubs for dinner and drinks, watched Westworld as a group, played a few card or board games. We also had a random guest that ran into the house a few times.

Work went well. We weren't the happiest there but the orchard was well maintained, the owners treated us well, and we got paid. We ended up working approximately 9 of the 20 days we were away from Tairua, 6 days spent at one orchard. Everyone was pleased with us as a group and our contractor asked us to work with them more when we left. Plus we had fuzzy mascots.

The orchard was difficult to walk around due to the sharp incline, but eventually they started driving us around. As shown in the one picture,  we filled 16 bussel bins and averaged 8 bins per person a day.  It was nice to hear from some of the other crew that they liked me and thought I would do 10 or more bins myself.

  

After about 3  weeks,  the contact ended and work with east pack started again. We had a few days of fun before heading back up.  Work was good in Tairua but we had too many days off. This prevented us from saving a lot of money. It also didn't help that most days of were due to rain so we couldn't even go outside hiking. 

Half way through this period,  we had a large group of Vanuatu guys join us at the hostel.  They were working with Seeka on their orchards. They were very nice,  if shy.  It took a few weeks before they really started talking to us. We finished picking soon after that,  most of they people who stated with us were still there,  but some left early due to previous plans. 

After picking,  John,  Tayla, and I worked with the local crew doing some orchard maintenance work. East Pack took over a Seek a orchard and we had to remove the poles and strings they use on the orchards.  After that,  the winter pruning started. Since I had travel plans,  they couldn't train me and my job there ended.  I loved working with the kiwis but was ready to be done. 

 With the end of the picking season,  most of the crew had a bbq in a local park as a final fairwell. There were bbqs provided by the city,  so a bunch of us bought food to share.  Games were played and just saying bye to the locals and other backpackers. It was sad,  but every one had future plans and were excited to move on.

I stayed in Tairua from March until June.  I loved the Beach House. Allie and Silva who run the hostel hosted a dinner for the 6 of us that were left.  I spent the last few days there fixing my van and packing. My future plans including sending my last month and a half travelling the north island with Annika from work.  But that will be covered in future posts.