Work in Kiwi Packhouse

We called it as working holiday, so we must work first before the holiday. And now, I just stepping into the world of working as a backpacker. (Wao, finally I called myself backpacker, sound cool :P).

I am lucky enough to get a job in a kiwi packhouse and now I work as a grader. 

Grader, sounds so professional. So what are we doing? We are grading the kiwi according to the quality. I can still remember vividly, during the first day of the working, we were get shocked. Bunch of kiwi were kept on rolling in front of us and we need to pick up all the defect kiwi by just less than 1 second time before it rolled out from your sight!! Imagine, we worked for 9 hours per day and the kiwi just rolling continuously in front of us 9 hours!!! It is definitely not something fun. However, lots of ‘experienced’ backpackers told us that, grader is one of the best job for working holiday. It is just some kind of easy job + high pay (Grader pay is higher than others like packer). Aiks, look like we just need extra training for ourselves.

This is how the Kiwi pack house look like.

This is how we dress up during our job. 

When the weather is just nice~

When the weather turn cold..

OK, I know I looked like aunty. But, it is just very GMP compliance. (Those who work in food factory will understand what I mean).

This is the place that we had our lunch and tea time. 

Outdoor

Indoor 

Normally we sit inside because it is simply too cold outside.

Everyday we have 2 tea time, 15 minutes for each time. Something funny is they called tea time as ‘Smoko’. Why Smoko? I don’t know, perhaps, it’s time to take a break and smoke?

Our packhouse is considered one of the best packhouse (at least what I feel about it). During tea time, free coffee and tea will be provided. Besides, we will have 2 biscuits as our snack. Yes, only 2, you can’t take more than 2. Sometimes, they will prepare some special food for us.

Sausage

Muffin~ I like their muffin so much. It is so easy to get a tasty muffin in New Zealand. You can just simply by muffin everywhere and all of them just taste nice!!

Look delicious huh? I think I’ll gain weight if I work here for a long time, Oh..no…. But it is just irresistible.

Besides, they prepare 2 boxes of kiwi for workers. We can just take free kiwi as much as we can everyday. Now my days just full with kiwi...

 So, stay kiwi (tune) for further stories...

My home in Te Puke

Finally we found a new home at Te Puke. New home is mucccccccccccch better than hotel as the house is clean and the facility is complete. If you read my blog earlier, the hotel is without heater!!! And now, this houss of course equipped with heater~~ Wao, heaven!!! Let me show you the house that I stay now~

The living room~

Dining Room?

The other angle of dining room.

Kitchen. Look nice huh?

The other angle for kitchen.

Washing machine area~

Wash room.

The house that I stayed!!!!!!

Outside the house.

After we move in the house, finally, we can cook rice!!! This is the first meal that we cooked in Te Puke (with rice). Oh.. I miss rice so much. So happy!!!

This is what we had today! Japanese Curry~~~ (By the way, this is not cook by me)

We start cooking everyday after we moved in. Finally we can have some proper and balance meal. I think after my NZ working holiday, I am qualified as a cook at home already (煮饭婆). So I should happy or sad about it?

Life In Te Puke

This is our second station, Te Puke. A very small peaceful town with only 2 main streets. Our luck is always bad in the beginning of a new place. We stayed in a hotel called Te Puke hotel (it actually is a hostel). Inside the hotel, there is no heater in the room. Te Puke is much more windy and cold as compared to Auckland. The reception was only gave us one piece of thin blanket on the first day and coincidence it was a cold night on that day. Three of us were trembling on bed that night and 2 of my friends even couldn’t get sleep just because of the cold weather. Fortunately, the second day we found out that actually everybody was given a duvet!!!!! Without any hesitation, we got it from receptionist and that piece of duvet pulled us from hell back to the earth.

Oh ya, we tried the McD in NZ and we found that the beef burger (Grand Augus) is very juicy and scrumptious.

There are 2 layer of cheese. If you are beef lover, you must try this.


Good luck always comes after all the bad luck. We got a job as kiwi grader on the second day after arrival. And we even got a better place to stay on the third day after searching.

Our life as general worker finally started...

Travel Around Auckland

We able to spare a day to travel around Auckland. We took a bus to Mt. Eden.

The first place we went was Mt Eden.

You may see the panaromic view of the Auckland City up there.

The path on top of the mountain.

There is a big crater on the top of the mountain and this reminds me on the scene in the ‘THOR’ movie.
















I can touch the cloud.

Random photo on top of mount Eden.

After all the photo taking session, we had our lunch in Circus Circus.

This café is just located around there and if you walk down from Mt. Eden, you will definitely see this.

They even won an award!!

Decoration inside the cafe.

Another photo for their decoration

Now let's have a look on the food that we had.

Smoke Salmon Bagel. Good taste and special. Because we won’t have this kind of combination in Malaysia.



And this. Smoked chicken courgette & sun dried tomato Quiche. This is the first time I try this. The texture is soft and it is very delicious!!! You must try this if you happened to step in this café.

Next, we went to the Auckland Musuem.

The museum that state the culture and the transformation of New Zealand from all aspects since past.

It only cost $10 for non resident. A worth place to go.

After that, it is time for us to look for a job, or else we will be continue our life by eating grass. Our working life gonna be started.

IRD and Bank Account Application in NZ

First day in Auckland, it is definitely not a lucky day for us. We planned to apply our IRD and open our bank account on this day but we ended up with nothing completed. Why? The Post shop located in Queen Street did not want to accept our translate license which issued and verified by OUR OWN GORVENMENT. They just accept those translated by their recognized body. License that issued by our country and translate by our government is not accepted but license issued by our country and translate by them is being accepted. Ridiculous huh? We had made a lot of calls and even walked here and there just to get our things done. Yet, we couldn’t complete them on the day. We feel so down because obstacles exist on the first day we landed in NZ. After doing the ‘research and survey’ on the same night, we found the way and everything was done on the following day. We still proceed our IRD application in Post Shop but this round was the one located in K road. Yes, same procedure, same action but this post shop accept it.Backpackers, except from Post shop, you may apply in AA as well, they do accept our translate license.

For the bank account application, it is rather straight forward. But you need to make an appointment earlier. (Kiwi Bank is exceptional). Their banking system is quite different from ours. Opening a bank account is a big deal in NZ and only managers are qualified to open bank account for customer. Their style of banking is each customer advised to open 2 accounts, 1 is called everyday account and 1 is the fast saver account. Everyday account is just same like our saving account but the atm card can used as debit everywhere with 4 digit pin code to key in. No interest will be given for everyday account. On the other hand, fast saver account is like our fixed deposit. They will treat this account as saving and only transfer the money to everyday account when the balance left is little.

After everything was done, our mood totally changed to a relax mode. Here are the photos in Auckland city.

Basically, Auckland is full with Asian. You may see Japanese restaurant, Korea restaurant is even more than western food restaurant.

If you come to NZ, you must try their ice cream, it is very nice~ This is the shop that we had our ice cream - Giapo, located at Queen Street, Auckland.

The one with dark brown colour is Organic Makacchino. Dark chocolate + organic coffee with nut. Yummy~~

The famous City Tower, landmark of Auckland.

City Tower at night.

Random photo.

Next blog will be the story about travel in Auckland~

Life in Auckland

Finally, I am landed in New Zealand. My dream to stay in other country finally comes true. Yeah~ Different life style, different environment, different culture, a new chapter of life for me. So, on 11 May, I took the Jet Star from KLIA transit to Singapore and ended up I reached Auckland in 12 May. 10 hours flight definitely was the longest flight time that I had ever taken. Inside the flight was freaking cold and I even took out my winter clothes and served as blanket.

We reached Auckland airport at around 10am! After that we were undergone all the checking. The custom officer checked all our medicine that we declared thoroughly (as many people advised us to declare). Sadly, my Teck Aun pill was being confiscated because it consists of certain ingredient which is prohibited by NZ government. Because of that, I was being questioned and we stayed there for almost 1 hour. Anyhow, the officer was very friendly and we were being released after that. Backpackers, if you want to bring chinese medicine over, just make sure there is no English label on it. :P Besides, you may apply for your Vodaphone Sim card at the air port.

There was something I must stress on is NO SHEEP in front of the airport!!! I remembered somebody told me that the moment we stepped out from the air port we can see SHEEP. Don’t Cheap me! Now I know there is no sheep !! . After that we took a bus to the city area.

The bus was well equipped with rack so that people like us can put our luggage on it. The bus driver will even tell you which hostel is near to which station.

We stayed in a backpacker hostel called K Road City Traveller. This hostel was definitely clean and comfortable! Facilities were well equipped.

This is our room.

Washing Machine area.

Corner for reading.

Kitchen area.

Bath room.

PC for online.

Breakfast and wifi was provided. Internet access in New Zealand is definitely expensive. $50 for 2G per month. If you ever travel in Auckland, u can consider this place. Thumbs up!!