Kiwi Picking

Kiwi picking has started. This is such a relieve after being jobless for 2 weeks and doing odd works like trench digging, carrying camera equipments for a pregnant photographer, moving house and best of all - picking cigarette butts.



The bad news is, there's a bunch of Germans on the team who picks really slow and it piss me off. Kiwi pickers work in a team of 10 - 15 people and earnings are split equally. So fast pickers like me (and a few others) end up picking for the slower ones and everyone gets paid the same amount at the end. It puzzles me why it takes 2 weeks for the contractor to get rid of the slow pickers. And she has been working in kiwi orchards for over 15 years!



Back to the fruit, I now realize there are 2 types of kiwi; green and gold. Not really sure why it's called gold while the flesh is actually yellow in colour. Of course the gold kiwi is priced higher in the market and pickers like me get more money too. Despite the occasional rain and we couldn't work (kiwi must be picked dry), it was a great experience picking kiwi - and I've learned how to drive the tractor too.



Pictures: (1) A typical kiwi orchard and (2) me.