9 interesting jobs I tried in New Zealand

Random stopover during roadtrip.
Queentown, New Zealand

Jobs on the road

This is how I fund myself to explore this isolated island in the South Pacific without watching my bank account dwindle. 

1. Avocado Packer - August

My very first job in New Zealand after days of job searching around Te Puke (Kiwi fruit capital) and Auckland. As a fresh seasonal worker, my job scope is pretty simple. I just have to get the right amount of avocado into different boxes and place them on the respective pallet. 

2. Kiwi Repacker - August to October

One of the most common backpacker job. I have to say shifts at the kiwi packing factory were torturously long. Staring at kiwis for 10 hours a day can get a little dull. Fortunately, the long working hours were broken up by breaks every couple of hours. We just have to count down to the next 'smoko' or lunch break instead of thinking we had 10 hours left. To pass the time, we would do some exercise and sometimes I'd sneak a peek to try do some learning during the shift from Argentina friends ( Caro, Mauricio, Andrea and  Isabella) starting from a song, 'Duele El Corazon'.  

After about 2 months of long days and nights, kiwi season came to an end and we had built up

some savings and were ready to say goodbye to Te Puke. Kiwi packing was tedious, but looking back on our time spent in Tauranga and Te Puke, it's the beautiful surroundings and the the quality time spent with my two travel friends and awesome people that I get to know from the pack house make me remember it all with fondness. This is the happiest job I have in New Zealand! I'd do it all again, 10 hours kiwi packing shifts and all. 

A short video I captured during the last working day at 

the kiwi fruit company.

3. Raspberry Picker -November

When I first heard that the farm I was going to be working on was paid per kilo, I had hopes for myself that I'm going to earn alot more than packer. However, it didn't go quite as planned. The biggest disappoIntment came when I discovered how little I could make getting paid per kilo. The hint for this job is get two hands in the bushes and keep plucking those raspberries as fast as I can no matter there are thorns and spiders all over the place. The faster you fill up the bucket, the faster you are able to make money. 

Daily routine in a Raspberry farm.

4. Farmer - November
Had a chance to work in a farm located at Te Pohue.

Kindly check it out at the link below. I wrote a blogpost about the experience.
WOOFing in Nirvana farm

5. Painter - December
We got this job all in a sudden while scrolling those online backpacker board. It stated no experience is required. Basically, this is a WOOFING kind of job (work in exchange of accommodation or food). The host is located at Rotorua and they are very friendly. What we need to do is paint inside and outside of their house for 2 hours a day. It was quite interesting
as I never paint a house before (Haha).

PS: Thanks to the host and travel mates for my birthday surprise. Appreciated!

6. Cherry sorter & packer - December to February

After having almost a month break travel from North to South Island. We decided to stopover at a small town, Alexandra. There is where we got a seasonal job as a cherry packer. My job scope is to get rid of the cherry in bad condition and pack the qualified cherry into a ready plastic box. We worked almost everyday during cherry season and we can take a rest if only cherry harvest of the day is low. I got cold injury on all my fingers due to long exposure to freezing cold cherries for hours during cherry sorting.
There was where I see cherry as big as an apple, met new friends and helicopter park at the car packing lot.

7. Mussel opener & packer - February

Frankly, this job is rather easy. Grab a mussel from the belt, use a knife to twist it open. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. The tough part is I gotta open almost 5,000 mussels per day! Basically, I worked 8 hours everyday, which mean I have to open a mussel every 3 seconds. Encounter back aches and neck pain for being stand still in a stationary position for long hours.

I was salivating when seeing those fresh and big mussels on the moving belt. Haha!

8. Salmon farm - February to April

What a dream come true to work in Salmon factory because I'm a salmon lover. However, the job is not as easy as previous jobs because it's all about processing salmon and chemical for cleaning and sanitizing food premises and food equipment. In my opinion, removing pin bones from salmon fillet was the toughest part of the job in this salmon farm. The steps are simple, run your fingers down on the fillet, feel the bones' tips, remove it with a needlenose pliers, repeat until the fillet is bone free. Can't really feel my hand for the first week. Apart from slicing, smoking and packaging, storing salmon, the complicated parts was sanitization and cleaning. 

Have a chance to join salmon harvesting located at Akaroa. Basically, what they do on that day was salmon feeding, and harvesting. According to the worker, salmon are raised at the farm site for up to 22 months and upon reaching the target weight of approximately 5 kgs, they are scheduled for harvest.

It's an awesome experience! Just that I had a serious seasick all day long. Haha! Had some fun with Reene fishing on the boat. It was funny where both of us know nothing about fishing but able to catch a fish within mins. Haha

9. Sale assistant - Armageddon 2017
During one of the weekend, managed to join Armageddon Expo  (One of the largest public convention held in New Zealand) as a helper. I was amazed to see there're a lots of youngster in the event. Some of them spent hundred to thousand nzd for the costume, some dressed like a comic character and some even spent thousand nzd to get an Ultra pass of the event in order to get an autograph and photo session with the celebrity guest .

Photo of me: Playing around with the costume and wig there while having a short break.