That’s how my back feels after 2 weeks of working. I’m still doing the same number of bins a day. No great improvement so far - on the other hand I did better than I hoped from the start. Today my supervisor told me that we will be finished next tuesday. Oops! That’s one and a half week earlier than I thought. No good for the money - good for my back. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll work some more before leaving the South Island. But first I think of some tramping again…

My workplace, originally uploaded by strativari.

Hey folks. That’s where I work. All mine to pick!

It’s not only virtual…, originally uploaded by strativari.

ThinkI forgot to post this one. Took the picture quite some time ago in Auckland. Now you know where the name comes from. It’s something similar to what we call “Leberkaese”.

Free internet is one thing… but windows 98 another! This thing crashed right when I was about to finish this. Crapp! Ok ance again then:
After a hard working week I finally can recover on my day off. And I’ve got nothing better to do than sit around in a small cabin next to the packing shed and use this old computer. Checking my mails took me a while cause I got spammed to death last weeks. There should be a death sentence for that!

Apart from that and other things (more later :-)) I’m fine. A beautifully set orchard, a nice picking team, cheap acommodation, as many apples as you like and a terribly tiring job, what could you possibly want more?
No joke, mates. Picking is a really good physical training. But I think I did fairly well on my first week picking 4 to five bons a day. That makes it … let’s see … around 6.5 tons of Breaburns I picked and carried around the last 5 days. Wow, no wonder I’m feeling a little exhausted! But anyway, so far it’s really good work, out in the sun and everything.

The only thing is I start dreaming of apples and bins every single night. I hope that stops soon cause neither books nor music help on that. ;-(

By the way we got the first taste of autumn so far. Windy weather coming from the south brought a little rain the last nights. And it’s getting cold. Around 5 degrees at night. Glad I got my warm and comfy new sleeping bag. Otherwise brrr…

PS: This is my 100th blog entry. Celebrate, celebrate! Thank you and good night.

Hi folks! Wish you happy easter! I’m  back in Nelson in Time and be starting work on tuesday. We still got sunshine and all that around here. for my part it might stay like that for the next month. Summary of my last few days comes later. So much: it’s gonna be an update on the wildlife studies among the pics.

 

Yes, me again, that’s proof, originally uploaded by strativari.

You should remember this one…
Here’s a reminder how it looked like in the movies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edoras

NZ hawk, originally uploaded by strativari.

Wildlife study #3, immature female NZ hawk on Mt. Sunday

watching the sunset, originally uploaded by strativari.

Wildlife study #2, Hooker Sea lion on the beach

Group up and show off!, originally uploaded by strativari.

Wildlife study #1

speechless, originally uploaded by strativari.

Did I promise too much?