Back to Wanaka

Things in Roxburgh came to an end yesterday. There were too many people for the amount of work left- we had picked through most of the apricots. Our employer started laying people off in the reverse order of when everyone showed up. I was the 5th to last person, and 6 people got laid off.
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(Rant)
Things were also a bit complicated with the employer at the orchard too. He habitually short paid the workers, "forgetting" to include a days work here and there on many pay checks and then not taking any interest to correct the problem. He forgot to pay me twice, and then lied to me about a bonus he was going to give everyone after several days that everyone worked below minimum wage picking cherries. Everyone had a problem with this, and the law here clearly states that contract workers must be compensated at the at least the minimum wage rate no matter what, but no one had the guts to talk to the owner about it. I finally talked to the owner on behalf of everyone, coming to the agreement that a bonus would be paid. Unfortunately, only one person ever received a "bunus" and it only amounted to about 12 US dollars. To be honest, it was a crock of shit. I really have no respect for people that hire people and then don't pay them for the work that they do. I have even less respect for people who take no interest in fixing the problems with pay when they are apprised of them. Upon leaving I "forgot" to pay rent that I owed, even though it still didn't come close to making up for the money that I should have been paid.(End Rant)

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Normally one could expect it to be easy to just simply go to another of the dozens of orchards in the region and pick up work right away, but it is not this year. Apparently there are many more people looking for work right now than normal and there just aren't enough jobs to go around, especially right now as apricot season is nearing its end and nectarines, apples, and others have yet to start. Some people are saying that it is a result of the global recession- more people from Europe and areas around the Pacific coming to New Zealand for agricultural work as an alternative to post university education that may be impossible to come by back home.

I'm currenlty with Victor and Eric, the two Swedes from that I worked with in Roxburgh. We left this morning and looked for work all over Central Otago. After many phone calls and visits to different orchards we came up empty handed. We ended up deciding to try Wanaka, reasoning that if we couldn't find jobs at least we could go on an extended trip into Mt. Aspiring National Park.

We were very lucky to land jobs within about an hour of showing up. We'll be working for vineyards here starting on Monday, doing various jobs to help with the upkeep of the crops. I think I also landed a better paying labor job in Queenstown that should start as early as Tuesday doing some construction type work. I would even get paid to commute from Wanaka to Queenstown. Not bad!

Wanaka is indeed my favorite place in New Zealand and definitely one of my favorite places in the world so I'm happy to be here. It is a bummer that things at the orchard came to an abrupt end, but hopefully I will see several people from the orchard again in New Zealand or perhaps in one of our home countries. I'm sure there are good people to work with here too, and for now the adventure continues....