I woke up at 430am today and couldn't get back to sleep, for fear that i will over sleep and be late for my first day at work.. About an hour later at 545am, i got off bed, brushed my teeth and prepared breakfast. I can't even remember when was the last time i woke up at such an unearthly hour! = )
K woke up shortly after and we both got ready. We were going to use our car to drive Ah Ming and 2 other China men staying at our motel lodge to the vineyard. According to Adreana, we will be working for THE biggest vineyard in the whole of New Zealand. Cool!
We finally (and very reluctantly) stepped out of our room into the freezing cold at 630am. When i checked the temperature reader in our car, it said 0 degrees!! Still can't believe i went to work when the moon was still visible and in such freezing cold weather!
The drive to the vineyard took about 40 mins. When we reached there, the sun was not even out yet. We headed to the office and spoke to one of the employees there, then started working at the vineyards.
This is the vineyard at 720am. The sun wasn't even out yet, and we could still see the moon.
The vineyards were organized into blocks / plots of land with alphabets. The 5 of us were supposed to finish blocks U, V and W by 430pm today. Basically, we were given big plastic bags and a pair of plier scissors, and were supposed to cut off the plastic sheets that were wrapped around the roots of each grape vine plant.
There was plenty of bending and walking involved as we passed by rows and rows of grape vines. I did about 10 rows for the entire day. One row had about 50-100 grape vines. It was fun at first, but got really tiring for me after a while. I actually perspire a bit cause of the hot sun, and my lower back was hurting like crazy. By 330pm, i couldn't even walk properly without my back hurting me. K had to force me to sit in the car and rest, cause i felt a bit embarrassed to rest while every else was working hard. But i had no choice. It was too painful. I couldn't even get in and out of the car without hurting my back!
K woke up shortly after and we both got ready. We were going to use our car to drive Ah Ming and 2 other China men staying at our motel lodge to the vineyard. According to Adreana, we will be working for THE biggest vineyard in the whole of New Zealand. Cool!
We finally (and very reluctantly) stepped out of our room into the freezing cold at 630am. When i checked the temperature reader in our car, it said 0 degrees!! Still can't believe i went to work when the moon was still visible and in such freezing cold weather!
The drive to the vineyard took about 40 mins. When we reached there, the sun was not even out yet. We headed to the office and spoke to one of the employees there, then started working at the vineyards.
This is the vineyard at 720am. The sun wasn't even out yet, and we could still see the moon.The vineyards were organized into blocks / plots of land with alphabets. The 5 of us were supposed to finish blocks U, V and W by 430pm today. Basically, we were given big plastic bags and a pair of plier scissors, and were supposed to cut off the plastic sheets that were wrapped around the roots of each grape vine plant.
There was plenty of bending and walking involved as we passed by rows and rows of grape vines. I did about 10 rows for the entire day. One row had about 50-100 grape vines. It was fun at first, but got really tiring for me after a while. I actually perspire a bit cause of the hot sun, and my lower back was hurting like crazy. By 330pm, i couldn't even walk properly without my back hurting me. K had to force me to sit in the car and rest, cause i felt a bit embarrassed to rest while every else was working hard. But i had no choice. It was too painful. I couldn't even get in and out of the car without hurting my back!
One of the many rows of grape vines that we worked on. You can see the green plastic sheets we had to cut off.
We had lunch around 12pm. Lunch was the cold pasta salad that i had prepared the day before. I ate in the car with K, while Ah Ming and the 2 china boys lay plastic bags on the grass and had their meals there. There was no way i could sit on the grass and get up without pain.. = )
This is the view from the block of grape vines we were working from. Gorgeous isn't it?
And that's K and me taking a break and snapping pictures.. I had to wear the UV hat that Ruby, June and Jasmine bought me, otherwise i think i will get skin cancer!
Oh, and this, is the portable toilet that we had to use to relieve ourselves. We had to drive like a few minutes to get there. For the entire day from 730am-430pm, i only went to the toilet once. I simply couldn't bring myself to use it. It had no toilet roll, no flush, and no water to wash hands. I could see all the urine and faeces in the toilet bowl, and they only had a hand sanitizer which was empty. My god..
This is a picture of the view we got at another block of vineyards we worked on. It was the last block, and i was resting in the car. There were so many cows that were so close to the car. The only thing that separated us was a pathetic wired electric fence. With my bright red jacket, i was so afraid one of them would come charging towards me!
Anyway, it was really interesting to observe the cows. I've always thought they do nothing but eat grass the whole day, but during my observation, i saw them "interact" with each other, and trying to mate even! There was this particularly horny male who kept hopping onto another female, but kana rejected.. haha.. so funny. Then i think i saw either the father or boyfriend of the female chase one male away when the male tried to tackle the female. Quite hilarious..
By the time we knocked off and got back to the motel, it was around 6plus. K and I went to the supermarket to buy ingredients for baked potato. We had invited Ah Ming and Adreana over for dinner. They hung out at Ah Ming's sister room while we cooked. The stupid oven in our room didn't work too well, so the baked potato turned out yellowish instead of the light brown and cripsy texture it was supposed to be. Anyway, it still tasted delicious! = )
There would be no work over the weekend, so both K and I were relieved. Even K is having a back ache now! For me, today would be my last day of work. K doesn't want me to work and worsen my backache. Plus, he is very sure that i am pregnant. So i get to laze in bed for the next few weeks!! = )
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