While staying with Harry and Tui, Jude and I have been earning a bit of extra spending money for our trip to Canada. Working for NZ Fruits in the Packhouse is hard out physical work that is focused on absolute speed. Packing kiwifruit into single layer boxes never sounded hard until you have to do it yourself. The fruit comes along a conveyer belt from the sorter and as they come out you check them for softness, damage, labels, double check they are the right size, and after making sure they are straight in the box, you then wrap the fruit and close the box flaps then you try to stack the boxes in stacks of 4 for the stacker to place on pallets. You may think think “Well that doesn’t sound to bad” but I tell you when that bastard of a machines speeds up or spikes you had better have the bloody agility and fitness of an athlete and the hand speed of Bruce Lee. When they crank up those conveyor belts it’s like trying to stop the water from the Hooker Falls reaching the bottom using a teaspoon and this goes for 8 hours with a 10min break 2hrs in, a half hour break 4hrs in and a 10min break 6hrs in, the trouble is no food is allowed on the export area and it takes with a rush 2.5min each way to the tea room so each 10min break is really only 5min and the lunch or dinner break is really 25min . Now here’s the weird bit… Jude and I love the challenge. No point complaining to the boss as the bitch will probably just turn the throttle up more…. oh and the fact that we are staying with her and Harry… yes our boss is Tui. We have had great fun working there as the people are down to earth hard workers… well most of them anyway. Jude has become very close to a lovely woman called Tange and the laughter coming from those two as they work flatout without compromising their task is amazing lol. At the same time it is hard not to notice the lack of work ethic of some of the staff and it does effect the overall performance of the packhouse, however that will be another post as I intend to seriously look at the shortfalls from both sides of the employer and the employees and journal my thoughts now that I have experiencing it at the coal face as to put it.
Gisborne temps are really warm compared to the southern temperatures we are used to… not particularly hotter but consistently warmer through the autumn and as we have been told through the winter as well. I honestly dont think it rains in Southland as much as it does here in Gisborne, since we have been here, we have had so much time off work as the kiwifruit can not be picked in the wet. With this weekend coming up we will end the kiwifruit season and start packing persimmons…. that will be interesting. I got a given the packhouse First Aiders position earlier this week and with people knowing my previous employment as a paramedic, all I hear behind a cheeky voice is the famous Shortland Street quip “You’re not in Guatemala now Doctor Ropata” followed by that Billy T laugh. I swore I would never want to open a first aid kit again, but as my dear boss (Tui) nominated me how could I let her down without being evicted from our squatting spot on her home drive lol… anyway most of the time its dishing out and recording who has been issue x-ray detectable blue sticking plasters as they have to be accounted for at the end of the shift, if they’re unaccounted for then there is a a unacceptable plaster in the export quality packed fruit. This role of First Aider does not increase my pay and I find it a nuisance when staff come along to my conveyor belt where we’re Bruce Lee’ing our hand speed trying to keep up with the water fall of fruit coming off the belt… it is really hard to leave our team to cover my line as well as their own at times, but they don’t complain and just do their best…. god bless their cotton socks lol. The salary is not the greatest at $17.70 per/hr and with work during the kiwifruit season being reliant on the weather for picking, I really feel for many of the employees who must really struggle to maintain everyday costs such as rent, power, fuel, food and children’s schooling requirements, it must be tough on them. We have met and become friends with many people here in the packhouse, and overall it has been a humbling experience.