Trevelyan's ,A Truely NZ Kiwi Packhouse- Part 2

Continue from part 1  .

Kiwifruits Packhouse packing season aka peak season is from April -July . Some ends earlier while some later (depends on the harvest season/weather)

But don't get me wrong , Its doesn't mean  that Kiwifruits Packhouse only open 3 months a year. They do works for like 8-10months (approximately) per year.

Within the period that i've joined Trevelyan , I have experience a lot :

April - July            : Kiwifruits Packing Season (required the most vacancies)

July  - October       : Kiwifruits Re-packing Season (only selected WHS will be joining)

October- November : Avocados Season (only permanent stuff)

In my previous post , i've wrote about April-July .

I still remembered that when come to the end of packing season , all of us are afraid yet nervous ,wondering that do we get the job for Re-packing coz if we don't we need to move all the way to south island for winter jobs .

I am honored that me and my housemates ,group of 12 have been chosen to joined their repacking season.

Basically what they do in re-packing season is to re-pack all the packaging which have been pack in packing season before export to other country. This is to ensure the quality of productions .

This jobs required to stand at least 10-12hrs per day (smoko every 2hrs) .

No doubt ,its a boring jobs .Why? Coz your only jobs is to :

take a box of kiwifruits (various size,various amount) > Open the box and take 2-4 kiwifruits each time > turnaround view 360 degree to check any rotten or cuts.

 Routine for 24/7 till end of seasons.

                                 
                                Last day of Re-packing (lol..i look so dumb)

But ofcourse, We do play,joke ,sing and dance around....Its real fun when i recalled back now. Its also challenging sometimes when they are in rush of sending orders out . We need to be Turbo Fast ,Efficient and most important Qualities !

I have learns something precious is the real real Team works

                                       Our Last Pallet Of The Year
                                                   The End Of The Kiwifruits

Apart from that ,
We do get a chance to get involved with Avocados. Its fun Packing with Avos .

                                    drool....they looks so fresh ,big and tempting!

it was their last day...my both lovely companions in NZ all the  while (their photo with Hobbit n Gay)

 

 At the end of the seasons in November , Each of us are required to bring some handmade food for share lunch (party) . I've made Curry Puff,Banana Muffin, and...i cant remember eh... haha.. its really fun .The permanent staff do present us some maori songs and performance ..

Oh ...and...we were requested by Gay ...She asked us (our group) to sing or perform them our Msian culture...

We were so panic..don know what to do nor either have any rehearsal.In the end we sang a fast version of Rasa Sayang and Moon Represent My Heart (direct transalate)  . Its was such an embarrassing time ! But they do seem enjoying Rasa Sayang. 

The group of us who sang...funny part was...there's Hong Kong-nese n Taiwanese Join with us...haha

Wonder how come i rated them the best packhouse to  work with ? Join them and you will find out why .

Lastly , Trevelyan do provide accommodations with reasonable price.

For More Information About Trevelyan :

Website                     :http://www.trevelyan.co.nz/

FaceBook Page             :Become Fans of Trevelyan

Email/Contact Number :http://www.trevelyan.co.nz/contact.html

Address          : Trevelyan’s Pack and Cool Ltd.

                        310 No.1 Road ,R.D. 2,

                        Te Puke,New Zealand.

P/s : I apologize for no videos up as i promised due to the slow internet connection problem +files is too big

P/P/s: I realized that many of my precious readers did contact Trevelyan for more information and jobs . Hope you guys get the jobs and love the place i recommended .

Trevelyan's ,A Truely NZ Kiwi Packhouse- Part 1

Dear Readers ,
I honestly thank you very much for your full support .
I know i have been absent on my blog for quite sometime, I promise i will balance my time to consistency drop something special here  .
oh...and im Flying to NZ again soon!


Today im gonna share about the best seasonal job place I've worked in New Zealand.


When i mentioned "Seasonal JOB" or "Horticulture Jobs" or even  "Viticulture Jobs"...What do you think of ? How did your imagination shows ?


Peoples that i've shared about , Never had a clear pictures until i told them wasn't that way and they will be real surprise about it.


When i mentioned about kiwifruit pack house ,which will you think of ?
Seeka ?Satara ? Apata ?Eastpack?Hukapack ?


For me.....Its always Trevelyan's !!


Why Trevelyan ?


Because ...

TREVELYAN's , A very peaceful environment which never let you feel homesick,A place where you meets all the great people~
A place where you work with all awesome and caring management team (Gay ,Jodi ,Linda,Brenda etc).
A place that i Experience the most hectic repack season with Trevelyan(compulsory 12hours per-day... and compulsory repack 1000 pallet per-week)which was scary but enjoyable~
Last but not least~A Place and peoples that i would never forget in my life. Thanks for the opportunities being with Trevelyan in the year of April 2008-November2008 .

 

Love to share some of the packhouse photos...I think which might fix some of your imagination.

               Production Entrance Left and Right

  

The Grading Area (which i do)

 

loads of kiwis came from different growers

 

We  grade for the best to export

 

 

The machine automatically rolled the kiwis for packing

 

The Packing Area

The machine  will auto generate the size and different label to the right lane for packaging

 

In peak season , They have 2 shift which is day and night shift .

Every shift ,they have few hundreds of candidates playing (works out) with the KIWIs.

Although jobs are kinda boring as you do  not really required your brain to function + routinely same jobs but Its really an amazing time .

I worked in night shift and i love it to the max.Jobs at 6pm to 3am .

The atmosphere was so warming and the background radio music...recalled me of some elder permanent staff...they love to switch from pop radio to 50's 60's music..which made me unforgettable.

Packing seasons started in end of march all the way to june .

They used to do celebration when peak season ends. The management get so well prepared for  all the WHS candidates .

 We have gathering celebration with all the WHS around the world

 

The prepared 'HANGI' for us which was Maori's Traditional meal. 

(a must try food in NZ) 

Its really taste special. (although i don used to the taste)

 Ok...I knew its doesn't look tasty and i bet you must be wondering whats that .

Its actually contains Chicken , Pork,Mutton,Lamb and with generous portions of root vegetables such as kumara (sweet potato),pumpkin,carrot,potato,onions and cabbage.

What i meant its special because its doesn't contains any salt but some might add up some herbs like rosemary or garlic

More Info (from google/wikipedia) :
Hāngi  is a traditional New Zealand Māori method of cooking food using heated rocks buried in a pit oven still used for special occasions.

This is how they heat from rare  to cooked

 

After finishing our Hangi ,

The Maori's even prepared their traditional dance .

I love their Haka Dance very much! Damm Cool!

Im trying to share some video but keep on fail uploading , will figure it out soon

People that i will never forget

Linda and Gay

My bunch of Housemates

My direct supervisor

(omg , i look like dumpling! Its winter man!)

My Working Partners

(without them , i can't imagine how's work done .

coz they are the one joke with me for the 10-12hours 24/7)

Lastly , Missyaki in the house !

P/S : If anyone of you happened to work with Trevelyan , Please do send my regards to Jodi , Gay ,Linda,Brenda and all of them ! Tell them i miss them and will visit them soon!

Coming up next , 

Trevelyan's Part 2 ,Re-pack life and also Maori dance video !

Stay tune ! Promise this time wouldn't be long as im fully job free!

Best Time to Go New Zealand

I really sorry for the late due to i am real busy since December...ive been keep bugging from readers . Thanks for bugging so that i will post now again.

When did you plan to go New Zealand ? Some might say winter so that can get to see snow and some might say Summer so that can escape from winter . 

For travelers , Its really depends on what you will like see in NZ but in terms of jobs (Working Holiday) i would recommended you the best time to go will be in Late March . 

Why late march ?

In my previous post , i did mentioned about how seasonal job cycle works round year .

Late march is Autumn which i think is the fabulous season to help you to get used with the unstable cool weather in NZ .

But in terms of seasonal jobs , it would probably be the best time. 

Peak Season jobs in March-July will falls at Hawke's Bay and Bay Of Plenty .

If you are going in late march it would be the best time to go Bay of Plenty instead of Hawkes Bay .

The demand of people in Bay of Plenty will starts from late march throughout june.

This will help you get a stable job for the whole season instead of job hopping and moving around.

Where else in Hawkes Bay the demanding of people will be in late january-march .

Which means when you go in march ,they do not need much worker anymore , which will give you hassle of not getting full time job or even jobless .

For me , I think march is the best time to earn good money which will allows you to earn and save enough for traveling .

However If you plan to go early than march .It will be possible as well .

Plans :

Arrive Auckland in mid to late January .Take a flight 1hrs/bus to Hasting 8hrs(Hawkes Bay) and look for jobs in Blueberries ,Apples ,Can-food production factory , and many others fruits.

Jobs will last you till april . So in late march , you either have to start email/call for jobs in Tepuke or Kati-Kati ,Bay of Plenty .Or you will easily get jobs once you arrive there .Main harvest will be Kiwifruits.

Kiwifruits peak season will end in early july/some are in end of june .

By then you may pack your stuff and head towards South Island . Best time to go south island is winter time . You may either starts your traveling or go for winter pruning in Blenheim , Marlborough Sound .Main jobs are all outdoor jobs in Vineyards ．This really needs hard work and willpower.You will earn real good money if you could hold the cold-ness and the pains from your hand and vain after too much of works on it.Winter pruning end mid to late september .

By end of september , You could probably give yourself a big big break . As they will be less (i mean it ,real less jobs ) due to its time for fruits to grow. 

Its time for you to travel and feel the environment around .

This will last up to 2-3 months.But no worries , you will still get some jobs out there. 

By November you may either go back to Hawkes Bay for some jobs or go to Central Otago in December for jobs...like Cherries .

Above its just the way i did when i was in NZ for my second year . Which really helps me to travel and works the whole NZ.

You may based on my previous post on which and where to work .

Basically its all in one big routine . Timing is very important . If you go in a wrong time or even wrong place , you will probably waste a lot of money and waste your once life once working holiday permit period .

Seasonal Job In New Zealand

Sorry Sorry all~ I know that i promised some of you to update my blog but then i totally failed due to really really a busy month. Company annual dinner just end which gave me abit of extra time to update . Okok ....no more nonsense.^^

Lets talk about the topic you guys/girls always wanted to know .
Many people keep on asking me :
How do you find Job In NZ ?
What Kind of Job We do ?
Where do we work?
Izzit hard to get a Job ?
Etc ~~Etc !!!

Ok.....Let me give you some idea. I cant post all the jobs contacts person number due to securities purpose i have yet get a permission from them .
However ,I will try my best to give you a clear pictures and ofcouse im happy to assist you if you need some help ^^

For me , Its actually not hard to get a job in New Zealand When you learn to know when and where is the peak season on going .
I'm going to discuss more on Horticulture Jobs . Some people did asked me that why didn't i go for Agriculture jobs . Hey dude ,Easy and Hard job with same pay ,Ofcoz i go for the easy one !! I did went for agriculture like milking cow but that's just for part time to experience .

In NZ , We have to based on Which season work in which region . I used to moved around in NZ which i think is kinda awesome coz at the same time , I can do my travel.

 Season Period in New Zealand.

This is the New Zealand Map.All the highlighted region is where you could get more range of Horticulture Jobs .

Lets start from upper North , I cant give much comment on Northland due to me, myself have not work there before . I have worked in Waikato Region before which was in Pukekohe ,
I worked in a Potatoes Factory which they produced potatoes for Potato Chips and also in an Onion Factory (one day ciao~i cant stand the dust pollution and the onion which keep on made me cried)

As you can see from the job chart that Northland and Waikato Job demand is not that high a.k.a Jobs might be kinda limited but but but..if you are going to backpack there ,you can go in the middle season to get some job too..

 The Following two region is My favorite place. I stay there for long time.

BAY OF PLENTY ,Plenty of Kiwifruits and Avocados .The Place which i really familiar with . As i was there for 2 season .I was in Kati-Kati for the first season working in APATA packhouse for 3 months and for the second season , I settled down in Tepuke for nearly 8months working in Trevelyan (pronounce as tri-vi-liens) coz i used to pronounced Travel-yan ~haha .I honestly LOVE Trevelyan.

From the chart , you can see that peak season falls in April-August ,Which is a very busy period in orchard or packhouse coz was harvesting seasons .
Good time to earn traveling money .

While in Mid-August throughout November is Re-pack season.

At this time , Packhouse normally cut-off 60% of people . For those who get a chance to work in Repack period is lucky one.

In this region , They gather all different of Kiwifruit packhouse , which you do not have to worry about jobs.

Hawke's Bay ~ A place with pot of GOLD! As you can see they produced many type of fruits/Veges .

I used to lived in Hasting for jobs. I loved Napier and Havelock North . They have many extraordinary scenery over there.

I have tried most of the job listed in this chart ~ Real great experiences !

Marlborough , The place of vineyard . They have more than 110km wineyard which caused shortage of people working every year . I was in Blenheim for the winter that time .Its really a hard work but earn good money too. Nice experience.

Otago !! It was another place where you get job easily in the right season.I honestly have yet work there before , but i know its a nice place to explore when you are backpacking over the nearby region.
















Does it sound complicated for you ? For me is just simple and nice . No worries that i will be sort of $$$ while traveling .Its always wise that if you plan your travel direction prior in NZ. So that you know when to work ,when to stop , when to travel ...

Next up: will be sharing some Job experience with photos and contacts & all type of horticulture jobs description . Stay tune peeps!!^^

P/s : Its really been a busy December for me ! please forgive me! By now,im preparing for my 21st birthday on 16th December.

All source photos/charts was from PICKNZ