Updated by PaulHaving been accused by some people of ‘gallivanting round the world’ and ‘having too much fun’ (you know who you are!) it was time to get some work and top up the all important cash reserves as all this gallivanting certainly takes it toll on the wallet! New Zealand is famous for producing some world class wines and as we quite like wine we thought it would be a nice idea to head to the main wine region and get some work in the vineyards!
Marlborough prides itself on being the sunniest region of New Zealand and producing some of the best Sauvignon Blanc in the world. (That last sentence is copyright of the Marlborough tourism guide!) We headed for the main town in this region, Blenheim, and immediately found work with a local contractor carrying out winter pruning of the vines. The pleasant image of working in warm sunshine and drinking bottles amongst the vines was soon shattered as 5am starts, lashing rain and cold Antarctic winds became the reality! This part of the world is currently experiencing some of the wettest winter conditions in decades - just our luck! Each day it rains heavily you can’t actually go to work. Whilst it’s always nice to have unexpected days off; you don’t get paid for them which kind of defeats the object of working to save money!
The work itself involves two main jobs - stripping the old canes off the vine and then selecting, trimming and wrapping the best canes to grow this years grapes. Generally only the guys carry out the stripping (sorry ladies, this doesn’t involve taking any clothes off!) It is physically hard and demanding work - one Kiwi guy even said it was like playing ten rugby matches in one day! Anna gave it a go for one day but was so shattered she stuck to trimming and wrapping for the rest of the time!
As the weeks have gone by the weather has got much nicer and its actually quite pleasant working in the Wairau Valley with the sun shining and some stunning scenic snow-capped mountains all around. We get paid based on the amount of vines we work on each day and we’ve managed to get this up to a decent rate - enough to be able to afford a good bottle of wine for the end of the working day!
The town of Blenheim is pleasant enough if not all that lively. The first place we stayed was pretty awful - had to put a token in the shower to get four minutes of hot water! - but we left there quickly and arrived at a great place called Leeways; a small backpackers hostel but more like a friendly house-share full of people working in the vineyards. I’ve even managed to get in some golf with a few other guys staying here - after several months of not picking up a golf club the swing was a bit rusty; and it wasn’t even that great to begin with in the first place!
Having done a few walks in the Wither Hills and toured the local museum we have definitely learned that the best way to spend our days off is to tour the local wineries. With over 70 to choose from and most offering free samples it beats walking up another damn hill! Using a couple of bicycles to get around it’s easy to get to a good selection in one afternoon but I swear the wobbling on the way home the other day was due to the gale force head-wind and not the five wineries and one brewery we’d just been to!!
The winter pruning season is coming to an end now and we will finish work this week. After a weekend spent watching the Ryder Cup, getting another round in myself and one more winery tour day we will head off to spend three weeks on the road travelling the rest of NZ and spend some of our very hard earned money. Bring on the gallivanting!!
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