want a little job?

well well well. today is April 16th, and i have been working 12-hour shifts for the last 10 days straight. this is my first day off since harvest really kicked into gear and so much has been happening, I can hardly remember it all (not to mention i have to cook for the house tonight and time is a-ticking).

so. here is what's been going on: I love living in NZ.

I liked traveling this country a whole lot--I liked it because it was beautiful and inspiring, because the people are friendly and don't wear shoes, and the mountains are epic and the meat pies are delicious. but traveling is only as fun as you are able to make it. that is, it's fun. but it's also a) expensive and b) exhausting. so while I really and genuinely loved exploring both north and south islands, and all the adventures Gen and I had together hiking, and driving, and surfing and the rest, I've gotta say: now that I'm settled and just living... it's even better.

My house is still great. Love my roommates and love the set up. 6 of us are on the day shift and 3 are at night. so when we come home from work after 12 hours of grape-smushing its just 6 for dinner and strange NZ tv and showers and off to bed...only to wake up and do it all again the next day.

The majority of my time is spent at the winery. there are 30 harvest workers and about 7 year-round employees, working a rather large winery, processing about 6.5 thousand tons of fruit. mostly we are doing Sauv Blanc (NZ most popular) but we're also doing a fair bit of Pinot Noir and Merlot too. I've been put on the "Reds" team which means I'm working with this guy from California and we are in charge of processes the red grapes that come in, taking them from the delivery trucks, de-stemming and crushing them, cold-soaking them, plunging them over 5 days, warming and fermenting the juice with yeast, plunging some more, pressing it all, and finally putting the juice into barrels where it sits for months or years (depending on the winery). that whole process takes about 2+ weeks and I'm lucky because I get to follow the grapes as they go from one stage to the next. The people who are working on the white grapes are separated into very specialized jobs and do a lot of the same stuff every day. I'm lucky because my job changes around from day to day and it keeps me always moving. and when I have time, I help with the other jobs so I'm getting to learn seriously a lot. makes me think: perhaps i could do this long term....eh?

So, that's what I 'do' but really what it all entails is: lots of hosing down of concrete floors, and mixing huge 30,000 ton tanks of grapes with long metal plunger things and adding buckets of yeast to tanks and more hosing of concrete floors and cleaning and plunging, and getting inside big presses and hosing out tanks, and shoveling grapes into presses and emptying presses of old grape skins, and hosing down floors again, running around the winery getting grape juice on my clothes and my hair and laughing with friends about silly international language mix-ups and eating and drinking heaps of coffee and feeling, really feeling what it's like to be part of a group of people who all get wine and like making wine, who laugh and play and eat and drink together, and feeling what it's like to live and feel settled in New Zealand.

Because that's what I am getting most. A sense of what kiwi life is really like. It's laid back and not wearing shoes is just how everyone does it. and men with the biggest thighs you've ever seen wear tiny short shorts called "stubbies" and the whole country is obsessed with "toasties" which is just any delicious product on a piece of toast somehow melted with cheese on it; and people here who say "heaps" and no one pronounces their "R"s and its sunny every day and at night the sun sets behind the mountains and I watch the colors change in the sky from the highest catwalk of the winery near the 270,000 ton tanks.

I'm feeling at home here and settled and comfortable and quite happy. when i think about the dilemma of the 20-somethings, that we have too many choices presented to us and no way of deciding which is the best option, i must remember Desmond and how he told us (mallory and myself): that the only thing to do is to live this experience 110% of the way and once it's over and done with, to move on to the next one, whatever it may be and give that 110% as well.


My hands are getting lined with dirt again, and my fingers smell oddly of yeast which reminds me of baking bread with my mom when i was younger, and my clothes are covered in grape juice and when I take a shower at night little grape seeds always fall out of my hair.

if i were a duck I'd be a lucky one. that's for sure.

A slice of Blenheim....

Today I crushed and pressed Sauv Blanc all day in the sunshine. After work I cooked dinner for my house--4 quiches and sweet potato oven-fries with broccoli. Along with the usual absurd amount of booze. And we finished the night off with an Easter egg hunt outside in the dark. Movies and bed now. Wake up at 6am for work tomorrow. And then... do it all again-- someone else's turn to cook tomorrow night tho. And maybe not so much chocolate either (I have a canker soar).

And that's my life.

:)