Kia Ora,
It's Teo again. How are you today?
Do you have a stable job or just going around the world like me? Well, I am a jobless man, being more honest, I quitted my job and started living day by day to stay away from stress.
When the first time I began that style of life, I realized that I just have started my real youth, at age of 28, in New Zealand. It was the first day I go far away from my old world.
When I landed in New Zealand, at Auckland airport, I was not myself anymore, no, it is not exactly. It was like being the real of my version. I don't know, whatever...
Leaving the homeland behind, carrying a symbol of beloved country: a 'nón lá'
Backpacker life
Okay, so my first job in New Zealand was picking strawberries.
A view from the farm
Have you ever experienced picking strawberries? I am not talking about PYO - pick your own. I mean picking fruits for a living. The farm which I worked for was the most famous strawberry farm in Auckland. We were a team of about 10 people. All were young, and all took a "gap year" of life to be a backpacker, and I've already taken 3 years until now.
Here is the team
The job started at 7AM and finished around 4PM, 6 days a week, about $800 NZD - $900 NZD per week. We picked in the morning until lunch then packed in the afternoon.
Picking strawberries is not a job for those who taller than 1m7. I had to bend all day and always had back pain for that. You'd know about that if you've experienced that. Laying on ground often happened.
Man is down
It was an hourly job, paid at minimum wage in New Zealand. After about 1 month, I've got used to it a little bit, picked faster and less back pain.
She was my crush on the farm. She now has a family in New Zealand. :((
One day, when the season went to the end, we found another farm bigger in West Auckland, a Maori man owns it. The farm was very huge. Strawberries were grown on mountains. There were more than 100 blocks, each block as big as the above farm.
The farm here pays by contract, many strawberries you pick, more money you get paid. Your job is to pick every fruit that has a little red, all ripen is not required. That why strawberries here were not sweet.
If anyone here has experienced this, comment below and tell me about your story.
And now, photos:
Fresh strawberry ice cream for pickers
The best strawberries
Double cute strawberries
Biggest strawberry ever
Princess Olivia
A birthday cake with strawberries
I love New Zealand.
Cheers,
Miss the time in NZ buddy ♥️
Woa, the yellow hat.
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