<< Like A Dream Yet NOT A DREAM >>: My Dream Job -----> Cherry Packing

2014 is a wonderful year - I get to kick start this year by working my dream job - cherry packing!!!! HOORAY ~~

Why dream job? 2 reasons:
1) I love cherriesssssss
2) It is an indoor job, which means I don't have to work under the hot sun or being shivered by the strong wind! Goodbye to 风吹雨打！ Yeah!!

Alexandra is a town where most cherries, apricots, nectarines and grapes orchards are located. Thanks to its dramatic weather; it records the hottest and also the coldest temperature in New Zealand. We experienced this ourselves. Sometimes, the weather is soooo hot that you feel yourself is burning. Whereas most of the time, the weather is freaking cold that it is only 3 or 4 degree celcius in the morning. We really don't feel that IT IS THE SUMMER SEASON now.

We got the offer to work as a cherry sorter in Panmure Orchard. Panmure Orchard is a family owned business. Our boss, Shirley is in charged of the flow in cherry packing, while her son, Jeremy takes care of the machinery. Jeremy's wife, Bridget, leads all pickers to pick cherries in the orchard. Before we start work, Bridget requests us to attend an induction day. This is to ensure that we know some rules and regulations to work in a packhouse. All the cherries are meant to be exported to overseas, and hence they are very strict on the quality of the fruits and there's several rules we have to comply to.

Induction day with Bridget

Our work place

So, how the cherries are packed?

First - Manager Wong has to transfer all the freshly-picked cherries to the conveyor belt. She has to sort out the rotten cherries as well.

Manager Wong and her partner, Ruth

the freshly-picked cherries

The conveyor belt carries the cherries into a machine that will sort them into different pipelines, based on their sizes. At the same time, the machine removes the unwanted cherries, such as those which is too soft, too small, rotten, or the crack is too big. Cherries are then washed thoroughly, then they will pop out from different pipelines.

This is where the washed cherries exit and come to us

busy sorting

The cherries are sorted into 3 categories:

1) Export: Perfect cherries with no cracks and not too soft

2) Local: Cherries with acceptable cracks

3) Rubbish: Cherries which is too soft, too small, have big cracks, or rotten

The last person in the line has to do a final check on the cherries that we picked. She will pack all the chosen cherries into a box.

Rubbish cherries

where we have our lunch

found a heart-shaped cherry

Everyday on our way to work, we passed through amazing mountain scenery and different orchards.

Apricot tree

We had a wonderful time working in Panmure Orchard. Shirley and Jeremy are very nice to us. We usually work 2 hours and we'll be given a 15 minutes smoko before we continue to work again. During the first 2 weeks, the cherries gain are awesome and we worked 10 - 12 hours a day. However, it started to rain at the middle of the month, which deeply affect the outcome of the cherry fruit. Rain has a huge impact on the fruit, as lots of cherries will drop from the tree. Furthermore, picker couldn't work in a rainny day, resulting the cherries to be over-ripen on the tree. All these reasons cause the amount of cherry fruit to lessen tremendously, and we're forced to end our job 2 weeks ahead of planned.

We had a lot of nice memories while we sort cherries. The greatest joy of cause, is the unlimited cherries that we can eat!!! “ 神偷樱桃”戏码天天上演！

The 7 people in our little green

With the pretty girl, Alex

View from our packhouse

Shirley, a very nice lady. We were treated KFC once as she said we have done a good job of sorting. Panmure has received compliments from their Taiwan customera.

Time flies and we have came to the last day of packing cherries. To our surprise, they prepared a cherry cake for us!

Group photo with everyone. There are people from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, New Zealand, Vietnam, Korea, and of course, Malaysia.

This is how we clock in and clock out everyday. Key in your staff id, and place your hand. Cool!

our gang

with all the kiwi workers

Cherry tree chocolate cake

The cherries that we steal everyday

Barbara, the QC. She wears a funny spec to inspect the cherries.

with the only Korean girl

When we just start worked, we're so excited to see the cherries and we eat a lot of them everyday. However, when time passed, we already get used and boring to it. The urge to eat the cherries has lessen because we already ate too much, haha! Since we end our job 2 weeks earlier than expected, we start to find others packhouse that is still looking for cherry sorter. We heard that a packhouse in Cromwell, Central Cherry still have vacancy. Hence, during the last day of work at Panmure, we rushed to Cromwell immediately.

Cromwell trademark - pear, apple, nectarine and apricot

We reached Central Cherry at 3pm. The staff there asked us to fill up a form and out of a sudden, she said they have vacancy now and asked us to start work immediately. We're not prepared at all! Yet, this is how we start to work there.

Central Cherry is a lot different with Panmure Orchard. It is a very big packhouse, with more than 100 sorters and QCs working there. Cromwell is not a popular place for tourists, hence, it is difficult to find accomodation there. There're backpackers who stayed in their own car, or in a tent site outside the packhouse. The kitchen and dining area is very big to accomodate everyone there.

Backpackers sleep in their car or camp

The way they pack cherries is different with Panmure too. At Central Cherries, they pay your wages by calculating the bin of cherries you sort. One bin cherry = NZD3. Hence, the faster you work, the more you earn. We have to sort the cherries before they are washed by the machine. Therefore, we feel a bit dirty and not used to it because the cherries we are sorting are just freshly picked from the tree. There's leafs, dirts, and even soils in the bin.

This is how we are arranged.

Here, we have to sort cherries from the bin

QC inspecting the cherries we sort

We supposed to work from 3pm - 12am. Luckily, we finished work at 11pm today and we got to back home early! We are really tired as we worked in 2 different packhouses on the same day. The next day is an off day to us because they need to clean up the cherry machinery.

OK, here comes the sweets and sours in our cherry sorting journey. Central Cherry is a big packhouse and they have more than 100 staffs with them. Hence, all workers have to check the working schedule themselves through online. Our friends told us that the day after our off day, we have to start work on 7am. Reluctantly, we wake up at 5am as there is a 40 minutes drive from Alexandra to Central Cherry.

Once reached, we noticed that people is crowded at the dining area. After few minutes, people from Central Cherry bring us a devastating news.

"Cherry season is ending soon and there's not much fruits left. We will have only one shift starting today and we don't need so many workers anymore. Please wait for your names to be called out to ensure that you have work today."

Here we are, waiting our names to be called from the first page to the last page. This feeling is kinda funny as this is the first time we have such experience. People who have their names called out are so happy and some of their reactions are really funny. There's a girl who stand up and kiss her friend besides once her name was called (happy like she just strike lottery or just won the beauty pageant contest). Eventually, we are the people who are left out.

So, this is how our story ends at Central Cherry. Work in 2 packhouses on the first day, then we lost our job. Since it is still early, we hang around and have a coffee in a cafe at Cromwell.

So, if you thought this is how we end our cherry packing job, you're wrong. The story doesn't end here. During our way home to Alexandra, we got news from friends that another pack house, Summerfruit Orchard has just received a big order of 1000 tonne cherries, and they need workers now. Without hesitation, we headed to Summerfruit Packhouse from Cromwell.

Summerfruit is located just beside Panmure. And, thanks god, we're hired immediately! Once again, without preparation, without our lunch taken, we start work immediately.

Summerfruit is another "feel" as compared to Panmure and Central Cherry. If we would describe Panmure as a "homestay" and Central Cherry as "Backpackers Hostel", then Summerfruit would be a "5 Star Hotel". Why say so?

Clean, spacious and comfortable dining area

Summerfruit packhouse is a listed company owned by few China bosses. Hence, it is a structural and organised company. We were brought by Winnie, the HR manager to visit the whole factory. She showed and explained to us the process flow and different departments of cherries packing. The toilets are very clean with individual light inside. The most astonishing part is, they provide free coffee and tea facilities for us, with some light refreshment. There's an aunty there to clean our glasses and cups. OMG.