Working on a Vineyard near Blenheim (-> Feb 1st)

Beautiful sky over the campersite

In Blenheim I refueled and then checked out the hostel, where Daniel, Fabian and Oliver were staying. I know thse 3 boys from back in Germany, so when I found out they'd be in NZ, I stayed in contact and we finally managed to meet up! They also had another friend with them: Victor. They met him in New Zealand and were travelling together for the last months. I payed a weeks rent and drove down to their campsite. After that we did some shopping and chatted about everything. They forgot to tell their boss another guys would like to join and apparently the boss didn't have any more capacity for new workers...
So I got ready to go searching for a job myself.
Because I booked the car for 2 days we were able to drive around the next day, which was sunday (so they didn't have to work). We drove to a bridge over a small river and jumped off the bridge, after seeing a maori guy do it.
After that we went to a beach and had some fun there. A bit later we returned to the hostel and relaxed at the campsite. Had some fun with other backpackers, singing and making music on our guitars/ guilele. My friends went to bed early to get up at 5am in the morning.
The next day I drove the car to the Blenheim Airport and returned it. I only had recently thought about how to get back from the airport, as it wasn't in town, but a few km outisde. I tried hitchhiking again, but no one stopped. After I waited a few minutes I walked a little and now and then stopped at possibly good spots, but no one was kind enough to give me a lift. In the end I walked all the way back to the backpackers and started my search for a job. And in between I tried saving my files (see the other post) with the help of Olivers laptop.
The next days I again phoned all places known to me for work but got nothing. I then usually walked around town and visited the library to use their wifi and internet to search for a job or just had a look at several shops, if anything turned up.
It ended up to be something like a routine for me. Then at the end of the week the boys also lost their job. They weren't fired but their boss just told them there was nothing to do for them, so "No work tomorrow!"
So we started searching for some job together. I had also been on the lookout for a place to stay and found a house, which was cheaper than the campsite and was perfect for the 5 of us! We moved in after the one week on the backpackers. SO now we were staying in an annex of a hjouse, which an elderly couple was renting to backpackers and other people. Probably not entirely legal, but I don't know the laws of New Zealand... We stayed in this small appartment with a kitchen, washing machine, good wifi and living room. From here we tried different things to find some work.
In the end someone mentioned it to our landlord who said he'd ask a friend for a favour. And sure enough we had work 2 days later. It was just enough to pay the rent and have some food, because we just worked there for 2 days, but that's what we needed.
Then the boys old boss called again and we started working for him again. This went on for another 2 weeks or so untill I left.

We had a fun time hanging out together, doing puzzles, playing games or just relaxing after work. Then in the beginning of February it was time for me to leave and head back north to Auckland.

The work was always on a vineyard. For the landlords friend we did some leave plucking. So we removed leaves from the vines, so the grapes were visible and could air and sun, to ripen faster (I think).
For the other boss the first week we did some wire lifting. The vines all grow on wires and we had to lift these, so the vines grow up and not in all directions. Also on some areas we had to reattach the wires to the poles, which were supposed to keep them up, because of alot of strong winds in the past few days. So alot of them were just dangling in the air, so our job was to keep the plants neatly behind the wires, so it looks good and the grapes are more accessible.
The last few days we also started plucking leaves for that boss. Though they didn't give us any info about  safety hazards or anything. The landlords friend gave us informationa bout the pestizides (it's chemicals, so wash your hands before you eat!!) and he gave us gloves.

That was my work in New Zealand. Unfortunately not as long as I had hoped, but apparently the weather was really bad for the grapes this year. No proper sun, or too much change, just not good. We were told some contractors had hired 20 hands last year and worked overtime. This year there barely was enough work for 10 people. That's why it was so hard. Also he told us the weather was no good for apples, we had already noticed the apples was really expensive! And mainly imported. Now we knew why.

Sorry I don't have any pictures of work, the few I made are all out of focus and I usually had my phone in the van while I was woking.

We found this "sound gun" on one of the farms, it makes a loud sound once in a while to scare away the birds

Back north to Blenheim (~ Jan 7th)

As mentioned I booked a bus to Christchurch and was on my way to Blenheim. Friends of mine had recently gotten jobs on a vineyard close by and I planned to meet them there to work together.
The bus left in the morning with a very chatty bus driver telling us many things about the towns we were passing and talking about the roads and so on. Other than that the ride was boring.
We finally arrived back in Chch and I had to understand how the new cool complex for public buses works. It had bays you could only enter, if a bus was there and the sections were numbered and had letters to somehow categorize them aswell. I finally found the bay I needed and took the bus to my hostel close to the airport. I chose that one, because I had gotten a relocation car from Chch Airport to Blenheim. Relocating means you don't pay a rental fee and take a car from A to B (where it's needed). Problem is, that the insurance has a high excess fee - so I payed extra to make that zero. And of course I had to return it with a full tank, so that cost as well. So not completely for free after all...
I stayed for a night in a very new hostel. They had "sleeping pods" and no bunk beds. So basically all beds were built into the wall and had many nice gadgets to play with. USB chargers, dimable lights and a fan/ AC which was horribly loud. And all beds had blinds to make it dark and not be disturbed by the outside. Also under each bed they had lockers which were lockable with a pin you could set yourself! That was neat, no key needed! And big enough to store my backpack and stuff. Nothing had to be laying around!
Unfortunately they were really long and in the back was no light. I used my phone and found a camera in the back! Apparently someone had fogotten it all the way in the back... I hope he or she gets it back and didn't leave New Zealand already! D=

I didn't forget anything there, but sadly my SD card "broke". I was using my tablet, then answered a text on my phone and suddenly my tablet said the card isn't readable... Whaaaat?!
I tried taking it out and putting it back in, putting it into my phone, nothing... damnit... Not good! Many fotos, music and stuff was on there. Luckily my dropbox sychronises all my fotos from my phone, so they are somewhat safe and not all lost. Still VERY annoying and uncool.
Later I was able to use the laptop of Oliver (one of the friends in Blenheim) and get some of the files, fotos and music back. But they were all renamed (into a series of letters and numbers), so it'll be fun to get them all sorted....

Other than the cool beds, the place had a big common room, which looked cool, was nicely designed, though the kitchen wasn't good. They had all sorts of neat tech in there (dishwashers and many cupboards), but the dishwashers were constantly full and no one bothered washing because there were dishwashers. The cupboards were almost all empty and only consisted of a few pans and pots, which were all small. So you couldn't make a bigger portion of pasta, if you were cooking for a group for example... And the fridges were also too small for the size of the hostel. But I managed. A nice touch was, that they had secured plenty of space for "free stuff".

After a night in the sleeping pod I went to the airport and picked up my ride. It was a big toyota, like an SUV. Crazy. So I rolled up to the hostel next to backpackers cars (all very used, some with ducttape holding parts together etc) and then my flashy big car, all new and shiny. I had hoped to find people to share the ride with, but it didn't work out. Apparently no one went up the same route at the same time as me...
So I drove alone. After making a few rounds in Christchurch to get fully used to the left hand drive again and to the big car, I headed out to the north once again taking the same road I had taken not even a month ago.

This is the car I drove up to Blenheim

In between I stopped somewhere to finally get the bluetooth working to enjoy my music and it worked! I was starting to head into the no radio zone so I needed some entertainment. Unfortunatly the roads in the centre of the island are all small and now of course overrun with cars, trucks and busses, since the coast highway was closed because of the earthquake last year. And some trucks drove very slowly through the terrain. Most of the time the roads were great and no issues other than sharp curves and the road going up and down all the time. I used the cruise control alot, which makes driving soooo much easier and relaxing. Additionally I had an automatic, so I didn't even have to shift gears.

On the way I did 2 short stops, one at the crossing between the road to the west coast and the other to the north, the second at a small waterfall. I did a short walk there and took a few fotos. Nothing big. I was more concerned into getting back on the road before I end up stuck behind a truck again!

The waterfall I stopped at on the way to Blenheim

After I walked down I got this view of the waterfall

About 4 hours after leaving Christchurch I finally arrived in Blenheim. The last hour was only flat terrain so everyone started speeding. Sometimes even big trucks started racing with over 110 km/h past me. The limit is 100 km/h in New Zealand. I was quite suprised but didn't want to go faster and just put on the cruise control and relaxed, singing along to my music!

Random pic of the day: Car I saw in the Christchurch - amazing license plate