Vineyard worker at New Zealand during working holiday

July of 2008, settle down at Blenheim and work under Contra Contractor,
lovely sunny climate here makes Blenheim an ideal wine growing region at New Zealand and normally this area need a huge work force during the winter time, that why I am here.

Basically the job here can split into 4 parts, which is pruning, stripping, thinning, wrapping.
And the pay for this kind of work is volume based, which mean u work more get more.
Vineyard worker need to cut all the canes from the plants and left only 2-6 canes, this call Pruning.


The pruning price I get normally is between 0.15 dollars and 0.30 dollars per plants,
depends on the requirement. So how much I want to earn, it’s up to me!
Even I not go to work also never mind, no people will check,
but that mean no income for that day.

0.20 dollars per plants for just cut the canes, sounds good?
Unfortunately, my first working day,
I only get around 20 dollars after calculate the pay,
that mean I only able to prune for 100 plants,
not even can cover one day basic cost, what a pity day.

So My Blenheim working life, go to vineyard in the dark every morning,
and don’t forget now is winter, its freezing!
Force own self to prune the tree as fast as we can, but even we try our best,
we only can reach up to normal standard, which is around 400-500 plants per day,
that already make us exhausted, hand cramp up and no feeling for most of the night.

You can decide go to work or rest in the home when rainy day, or even sunny day,
that full of flexibility. Even the jobs look tough,
but some expert here can prune > 1000 plants per day, easily earn >200 dollars per day,
but for me, this pruning can’t make money,
only one of the life experience!

This is my 2nd job at New Zealand during working holiday, as vineyard worker.

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