Goodbye Te Puke!

Sometimes, things just happened out of our expectation.

Since our Day 1 here in New Zealand, we've met all sorts of kind and nice people. The homestay owner who treats us very well, the other backpackers who share a lot of experiences with us, our kiwi orchard supervisor who is funny and cute. However, we also met the one and only boss who pissed us off.

Our job in kiwi orchard requires us to work everyday, as long as the weather is good. However, we met an evil "head wind S" who makes our first job unforgettable. During the first day of work, we accidentally offended him because he claimed that we asked too much about our job. (His "too much questions" are actually questions like how many hours we need to work a day / how many days we need to work a week.....) He is also an extremely small gas people that he told everyone that we are the troublesome 4 people who offended him. During working, all workers scared of him very much as he always acts according to his emotion. Even our supervisor also afraid of him so much. Whenever he is around, everyone is trembling and stressed, as we do not know what he will do in the next second.

"Head wind S" loves to scold people, but he loves to talk soft and sweet words in front of us. However, he turned his face fast when he faces the supervisor, so that the supervisors are so afraid of him. There're actually 4 groups of people (About 50 working holiday people) works under "head wind S" in the kiwi orchard. One day, Will's group was called to stop work suddenly. No reason was given, no warning, not even a words from him. The whole group just has to stop work out of a sudden. "Head wind S" is angry because the progress of work doesn't meet his expectation.

Mei Chuen, Corey and me are very lucky. We got to work under 奸人坚's group，and as 奸人坚 is the apple of an eye of "head wind S", we are safe and we managed to secure our job. The other three groups were not as lucky as us. They have to wake up early in the morning everyday, had their lunch box well prepared, and wait for the phone call to know whether they got work on that specific day. "Head wind S" does not like to inform people in beforehand, he loves to decide everything in the morning, according to his mood. He also did a lot of unkind and rude things to his workers.

Finally during the third day Will was not working, three of us decided not to wait anymore. We can't stand to wait like this everyday, without knowing that is the whole group of Will are fired? Or is it just a warning? The worst thing is "Head wind S" does not like to give any information, he just don't care about our situation and he doesn't want to let us know whether the job is still ongoing. Eventually, we decided to quit this job. We can't tolerate the bad temper of "head wind S" and we were extremely stress to work under him. We can't predict his emotion everyday, and we would never know what he want. At this critical time, very fortunately, we able to find a blueberry picking job at Hamilton!

The water shoots on the tree, where we have to remove it

The one month stay at Te Puke actually bring us a lot of memories. We've been in the kiwi orchard for four weeks and we actually have unforgettable time here. First, we were designated to pick the flower buds on the female tree. After some time, our job scope changed where we've to remove the water shoots. There are different kinds of water shoots and we always get confused which one should be removed and which one shouldn't.

想要种奇异果树吗？很简单！
首先，公树要采花：
开花了的不能采，已经开花可是只开一点的可以采，还没开花的不能采，还没开花可是花瓣露多的可以采。
母树要拔枝：
短枝要拔，长枝不要拔，枝很长可是有毛就要拔，有毛可是它很空又不可以拔，没有毛可是它有很多枝就要拔。高的要拔，矮的不要拔。高可是它空，又不可以拔。又高又空，可是是毛枝，又要拔。矮的可是它生反方向，也要拔。矮，生对方向，可是它空，又不可以拔 
除了采花拔枝，还有简单的剪枝，选果，采花瓣，採果，包装的条规哦！万一天气冷，就驾个直升机在奇异果树上绕一绕，可别让奇异果着凉！
明白了吗？大家会种吗？


There's one time that we're ordered to pick the male tree flowers, as there's raining for few days and all flowers blossom very fast, hence the're too much flowers to be picked. This is a really tiring job for us because:
i) the flowers are quite tall
ii) we don't get paid hourly, we get paid by the kg of flowers we managed to pick.


You can imagine that flowers are actually very light, hence we work so fast and stress because we wanted to pick as much flowers as we can. At the same time, we have to carry a bag in front of us to collect the flowers we picked. After few hours of working, we can feel that our shoulder and neck are aching terribly.

Our flower-picking look. I hate the heavy bag!

Our hard earn flowers!

The flowers we picked were sent to the factory to extract out the pollen. The pollen has to be extracted immediately on the day the flowers were picked. After some "twist and turn" processes, the pure pollen becomes very fine and smooth, and it is ready to be exported. This male tree pollen is very important so that when male tree is not enough in some specific orchard, this artificial pollen will be used to fertilize the female tree's flower. In a normal condition, the pollen from a male tree will be transported to a female flower by bees.

All flowers going into the machine for extraction

The final product - fine and smooth pollen

Of course, besides the taste of bitterness, we also had sweet memories during our work. We make friends with working holiday people from other countries, and we saw some interesting stuff too! These are the things we wouldn't see in our daily lives in Malaysia.

tallest people wearing the 6-inch steel shoes. Big different?

Photo with hong kong friend

While removing the water shoots, we saw this baby bird who still can't fly lying in a bird nest! So Cute!!!

Bird nest with blue eggs, where we always found on the kiwi tree

Besides the memory of working, we had a lot of beautiful memories staying at Lynne's house. She is a very nice people who takes care of us like a mother. When Will was being stopped from work, she brought him to the Sunday Market and some places around. We also had few scrumptious dinner there, and it is the most joyful moment.

First scrunptious meal wih Lynne's working holiday staff from hk ~ Green Salad, Roasted Lamb, Shrimp Couscous, Bake Potato, Fish Fillet

Kiwi Style!

Second scrumptious meal prepared by us ~ Roasted Pork, Potato with Mince Meat, Tomato Fried Egg, Stir Fry Vegetables

Malaysia Style!

Last meal, which is also our farewell meal T_T ~ Steam Asparagus, Boiled Potato, Garden Green Salad, Crisp Bread with Self-Made Spinach Sauce (amazingly yummy!!), Fried Rice, Salted Chicken, Onion Beef, Bacon & Egg Pie, Kiwi Pie

It's a Kiwi + Malaysia + Taiwan + Czech Republic Style Dinner!!! yummy yummy ~

Let's see how this fusion dinner was prepared......

 

Our last dinner with all members in Kaituna Road ~ Lynne, Miroslav, Alenka, Cutie, Nash, and 4 of us!

Before we leave, we went to Kiwi 360 to have a look. Kiwi 360 is so near to our house, and yet we never know that there's shops and cafe inside, and we can go inside the huge kiwi! Also, we got to taste the yummylicious kiwi ice cream before we leave Te Puke.

Saw a tree with many flowers!!!! Sooo many flowers like leaves!

The gold kiwi, nearly missed it as we only take pictures on the green side last time we were here, haha

Last picture with our Taiwanese housemate - Cutie

Saw this cute little mice (we called it mickey mouse) in our bedroom on the last night. His dead siblings scared me off, omg!!!!

We're staying at Maketu for few weeks and yet we do not know that there's a famous Maketu Pie nearby! Before we left, we quickly grasp three maketu pies - chicken, beef and lamb.

Maketu Pie

天下无不散之筵席。
It's time to end our journey at Te Puke.
We're heavy hearted to leave Lynne's warm and sweet house. Good bye Te Puke, good bye kiwi tree! Yeah, we don't have to face kiwi trees again!! We will definitely miss our memories here. Also, we have a very nice and memorable dinner with someone special and mystery (couldn't be revealed here) during our last night at a chinese buffet restaurant. Too bad I couldn't post the photo here in public. However, sweet memories will always last in our heart. Bye bye Kiwifruit Capital of the World!