Friday, October 15, 2004
Fun times at Vibrant Earth
SO...
For over a month now we've been working for Vibrant Earth Ltd, a wholesale plant nursery in Hope, New Zealand. Shame on us for not writing and blogging and posting photos of this earlier, but better late than never right? After we finished pruning every kiwifruit vine in the orchard, and piecing together a whole heap of frost protection sprinklers for said orchard, we switched jobs again. Most people know we've been working for a nursery, but the greatest part is that we are working for the same couple. At the kiwi orchard we worked for Phil, and now we are working for Mary, his wife. While they both own it and Phil does important work around the place as well, Mary is the mastermind behind Vibrant Earth. Talk about a green thumb, wow, this woman could make anything grow. All of our coworkers are the same, they are passionate about growing things. We are novices to say the least but we have really learned a lot about both Native and Exotic plants here in New Zealand and have enjoyed all the tasks we've been taught how to do. Well, ok weeding "isn't my favorite" but driving the Power Pony and potting like mad has been much fun. Mike is one of only two guys that work there and so Jed has really enjoyed having a little more testosterone around. When moving large heaps of bark called for renting a huge earth mover, we all had a good laugh when Mike "had" to show Jed the way of it in the wee little Power Pony. Typical.
Last weekend, as Mike mentioned, we borrowed a couple of sea kayaks from Mary and Phil and managed to squeeze in a wee jaunt up to Abel Tasman. The weather was not cooperating on Sat and we just had a couple of free hours on Sunday before we went to a BBQ over at Karen and Pete's. The kayaking was much fun til the wind came up and what little control and pizzazz we had in the kayaks went by the wayside. Oh and the tide was out so we got to haul the kayaks overland through the shallows to the car...at the end of the trip, whew tiring. But Mary and Phil assured us that they are not urgently needed at their place (the have young 'uns now) and so we are storing them in the shed at Jeanette's in the hope that another opportunity to use them will arise.
Sunday night we were invited to Karen and Pete's to join in on a BBQ for their basketball team. Mostly just friends we knew already, but a couple wonderful people to meet. Their friends Fleur and Ralph, who we have heard much about were there with their brand new baby boy Ezra. What a doll.
Then, this past Monday night, Mary and Phil took everyone at work out to dinner. They usually take the staff out for Christmas Eve lunch, and a midwinter dinner, and this year the midwinter dinner was put off and put off with busy schedules until now. SO even though it's now spring they felt like celebrating, and lucky us, Mike and I were invited along too. We went to a restaurant called Lone Star (nope not the chain from the States) that was absolutely fantastic. We all ate far too much, drank some wine, and had an incredible time talking and laughing lots. Then we had dessert on top of all that, we fairly rolled home and were still full the next morning! Thanks again to Mary and Phil!
Later in the week, the excitement at work continued. Wednesday morning around 9:00am, after a few delays -both expected and unexpected-, the potting machine arrived. The infamous potting machine that we've heard about, seen a picture of, but couldn't quite fathom is finally here. All the way from Holland, this puppy is the newest toy at the nursery and Jed, Mike, and Mary spent a happy couple of days engrossed in working out the wiggles in it.
The rest of us trusty rusty workers, were priviledged enough to weed. Fun stuff, let me tell you, but the weather was glorious and the conversation good so it went by smoothly. Thursday we had unexpectedly warm weather...temps up to 86 degrees! Lovely lovely lovely. Then on Friday, after a sunny warm morning of...weeding...it began to rain and didn't stop til this morning. Ah spring.
As Mike mentioned earlier, we've really been enjoying the people we've gotten to know during our time here and are concentrating on soaking them up as much as possible rather than gallivanting around the countryside every weekend. We have been watching movies on Jeanette's new DVD player, making desserts from home to share, enjoying the sunshine, wine tasting
and having teeny dinner parties with Jeanette and Geoff among other things. Geoff is a new friend who lives with us now. Geoff is from further south, near Twizel (FYI: Twizel is where the final battle in the LOTR was filmed and he and his family lived right over the hill from all the smoke, lights, and general craziness for the 25 days it took to film.) He is an English citizen but soon to be a kiwi now, and is originally from South Africa and we've spent many a happy hour talking and learning from him. He'll be living with Jeanette until January when his wife and two daughters will move up here. He is here to create and manage a recycling program in this area, and task of gargantuan proportions seeing as how he had to start from absolute scratch. No office, no building, no furniture, no employees, etc. But from what we hear things are falling into place, and the real insanity will start Nov 20th when they kick off their first season of waste management--right in the middle of the tourist season in the area when the waste levels are through the roof. Better him than me, I tell you, but thank goodness someone is doing it. It makes us feel really icky to throw glass, cardboard, plastic, aluminum, etc in the trash.
And now, time has flown away to who knows where, and we only have two weeks of work left. Next weekend is Labor Weekend here so we'll have a paid holiday Monday the 25th, and that next Friday is our last day of work. We'll miss the people terribly but we are VERY excited to be off to see the rest of this beautiful island. We will end our time here with, what will possibly be, tearful farewells and the addresses of many new friends, and start off into the final stage of this adventure. I can't believe it's here so soon! But once we are traveling again and seeing and photographing lots of stuff, we'll be back to the blogging thing, never fear.
For over a month now we've been working for Vibrant Earth Ltd, a wholesale plant nursery in Hope, New Zealand. Shame on us for not writing and blogging and posting photos of this earlier, but better late than never right? After we finished pruning every kiwifruit vine in the orchard, and piecing together a whole heap of frost protection sprinklers for said orchard, we switched jobs again. Most people know we've been working for a nursery, but the greatest part is that we are working for the same couple. At the kiwi orchard we worked for Phil, and now we are working for Mary, his wife. While they both own it and Phil does important work around the place as well, Mary is the mastermind behind Vibrant Earth. Talk about a green thumb, wow, this woman could make anything grow. All of our coworkers are the same, they are passionate about growing things. We are novices to say the least but we have really learned a lot about both Native and Exotic plants here in New Zealand and have enjoyed all the tasks we've been taught how to do. Well, ok weeding "isn't my favorite" but driving the Power Pony and potting like mad has been much fun. Mike is one of only two guys that work there and so Jed has really enjoyed having a little more testosterone around. When moving large heaps of bark called for renting a huge earth mover, we all had a good laugh when Mike "had" to show Jed the way of it in the wee little Power Pony. Typical.
Last weekend, as Mike mentioned, we borrowed a couple of sea kayaks from Mary and Phil and managed to squeeze in a wee jaunt up to Abel Tasman. The weather was not cooperating on Sat and we just had a couple of free hours on Sunday before we went to a BBQ over at Karen and Pete's. The kayaking was much fun til the wind came up and what little control and pizzazz we had in the kayaks went by the wayside. Oh and the tide was out so we got to haul the kayaks overland through the shallows to the car...at the end of the trip, whew tiring. But Mary and Phil assured us that they are not urgently needed at their place (the have young 'uns now) and so we are storing them in the shed at Jeanette's in the hope that another opportunity to use them will arise.
Sunday night we were invited to Karen and Pete's to join in on a BBQ for their basketball team. Mostly just friends we knew already, but a couple wonderful people to meet. Their friends Fleur and Ralph, who we have heard much about were there with their brand new baby boy Ezra. What a doll.
Then, this past Monday night, Mary and Phil took everyone at work out to dinner. They usually take the staff out for Christmas Eve lunch, and a midwinter dinner, and this year the midwinter dinner was put off and put off with busy schedules until now. SO even though it's now spring they felt like celebrating, and lucky us, Mike and I were invited along too. We went to a restaurant called Lone Star (nope not the chain from the States) that was absolutely fantastic. We all ate far too much, drank some wine, and had an incredible time talking and laughing lots. Then we had dessert on top of all that, we fairly rolled home and were still full the next morning! Thanks again to Mary and Phil!
Later in the week, the excitement at work continued. Wednesday morning around 9:00am, after a few delays -both expected and unexpected-, the potting machine arrived. The infamous potting machine that we've heard about, seen a picture of, but couldn't quite fathom is finally here. All the way from Holland, this puppy is the newest toy at the nursery and Jed, Mike, and Mary spent a happy couple of days engrossed in working out the wiggles in it.
The rest of us trusty rusty workers, were priviledged enough to weed. Fun stuff, let me tell you, but the weather was glorious and the conversation good so it went by smoothly. Thursday we had unexpectedly warm weather...temps up to 86 degrees! Lovely lovely lovely. Then on Friday, after a sunny warm morning of...weeding...it began to rain and didn't stop til this morning. Ah spring.
As Mike mentioned earlier, we've really been enjoying the people we've gotten to know during our time here and are concentrating on soaking them up as much as possible rather than gallivanting around the countryside every weekend. We have been watching movies on Jeanette's new DVD player, making desserts from home to share, enjoying the sunshine, wine tasting
and having teeny dinner parties with Jeanette and Geoff among other things. Geoff is a new friend who lives with us now. Geoff is from further south, near Twizel (FYI: Twizel is where the final battle in the LOTR was filmed and he and his family lived right over the hill from all the smoke, lights, and general craziness for the 25 days it took to film.) He is an English citizen but soon to be a kiwi now, and is originally from South Africa and we've spent many a happy hour talking and learning from him. He'll be living with Jeanette until January when his wife and two daughters will move up here. He is here to create and manage a recycling program in this area, and task of gargantuan proportions seeing as how he had to start from absolute scratch. No office, no building, no furniture, no employees, etc. But from what we hear things are falling into place, and the real insanity will start Nov 20th when they kick off their first season of waste management--right in the middle of the tourist season in the area when the waste levels are through the roof. Better him than me, I tell you, but thank goodness someone is doing it. It makes us feel really icky to throw glass, cardboard, plastic, aluminum, etc in the trash.
And now, time has flown away to who knows where, and we only have two weeks of work left. Next weekend is Labor Weekend here so we'll have a paid holiday Monday the 25th, and that next Friday is our last day of work. We'll miss the people terribly but we are VERY excited to be off to see the rest of this beautiful island. We will end our time here with, what will possibly be, tearful farewells and the addresses of many new friends, and start off into the final stage of this adventure. I can't believe it's here so soon! But once we are traveling again and seeing and photographing lots of stuff, we'll be back to the blogging thing, never fear.
Comments:
Post a Comment
