Life in Blenheim

After being in Blenheim for almost a month now, we have been able to get a good grasp on what the place is like and what it has to offer. The Lonely Planet guide says the town “offers little to enthrall or distract except for the brilliant Aviation  Heritage Centre and the world famous wineries just over its back fence” but I would have to disagree. In terms of location, Blenheim is located at the top of the South Island in the Marlborough Region. This is one of the major wine producing regions in New Zealand, known for its sauvignon blanc. Blenheim is a small agricultural town with a population of ~30,000.  As for the landscape, the town is quite flat being on the Wairau Plain but is situated between the Wither Hills and the Richmond Ranges. There are also the two rivers, Omaka and Opawa, that run through the town and rocky beaches are only a short drive away.

Welcome to Blenheim

Blenheim Town Centre, with Taylor (Omaka) River running through it

In terms of the sights and sounds, the Aviation Heritage Centre is not on our list of things to do. Instead, we have checked out the Sunday horse races, attended the flea and farmers markets on Saturdays and Sundays, spent some time walking along the rivers, and last weekend went on a 4 hour hike through the Wither Hills Farm Park. And of course being in wine country, we decided we should take part in their annual “Marlborough Wine and Food Festival” which is being held next weekend- can’t wait! They have also hosted another annual festival this weekend called “Blues, Brews and BBQs” that peaked our interest but we thought we should go the wine route.

Woohoo, at the horse races!

Unfortunately none of our horses we put fake bets on won...

The four-hour hike begins

Rotary Lookout

Mount Vernon Lookout with Richard

While in Blenheim we have been staying at Duncannon (duncannon.co.nz). It’s more of a camp than a hostel but it’s a pretty good set up. Rooms are split up into different blocks on the five acres of land and each room consists of two twin beds and a closet. There are separate buildings for toilets and showers, the kitchens, tv rooms, laundry room, a small gym and reception. On the far end of the camp there is a recreational field and at the end of that is the Opawa River. I guess the area used to hold a motel but five years ago, Duncannon was built and has served as a place for islanders and backpackers to be set up with work and a place to stay.

Duncannon - Quality living for seasonal workers

Our jail cell, OOPS! I mean our room. We had to steal the table and chairs from the kitchen.

Through the set up of Duncannon and work, we have been able to make a number of friends here. There is a German by the name of Richard who was our neighbour for the first week and also worked with Adrian on the vineyards. He only stayed at Duncannon for a week and then lived out of his van the rest of the time but he has continued to come by to visit and eat with us. We also went to the horse races and did the Wither Hills hike together. Adrian also worked with some Italians who live in a shared house and have had us over for a house party a couple weekends ago and a bbq yesterday. There are always a lot of laughs with them. Then there is a Fijian here with permanent residency by the name of Amit. We have become better friends with him from working together garlic picking. Also through garlic picking, we met a couple, Anne (German) and Stephen (English). They have just come to New Zealand from Australia after being there for two years. It’s been to great to hear of their work and travel adventures while over there and to get some advice from them.

Duncannon’s job placement services is how Adrian got vineyard work so fast and how I eventually got work as well. All of my job searching in town was unsuccessful but thankfully after 10 days at Duncannon a job finally came up for me. Because the area is known for wine, I figured I would eventually land some vineyard work so I was surprised when I found out I would be GARLIC picking :p Adrian put in 2 weeks worth of vineyard work until he felt it was time to try something new and started garlic picking with me the week after I had started.

One of the vineyards Adrian worked on

Beautiful morning to be working on the vineyards

Adrian and Richard after their first week working on the vineyard

It’s a great gig we have. We work for a company called Piquant Garlic which is ran by two brothers, Allan and Robert Jones. Real nice guys and fairly laid back. We work 8am-5pm as long as the weather is good with a “slow-go” at 10am and 3pm and lunch around noon. We are so thankful that technology has advanced enough that we don’t have to hand pick the garlic or the job would be much more physically challenging. On the larger paddocks, there are two harvesting machines that dig into the ground, pick up the garlic cloves, carry them up a ladder where the shoots get cut off, then carried down the ladder and finally dropped into a big wooden bin. Our job is to follow behind the harvesting machine and pick up any garlic the machine missed. Not too bad at all, especially in comparison to wire lifting, according to Adrian. On the weekends we have been able to work a little bit which has helped with saving. A full-time employee of Piquant has his own paddocks of garlic, shallots and white sweet onions so we worked last Saturday for him and will again tomorrow.

The one harvesting machine we followed behind the majority of the time.

The other harvesting machine

Amit and Adrian hard at work

I <3 Garlic Picking

As mentioned in our last post, we plan to stay and work in Blenheim until the end of February/beginning of March. There should be enough work to keep us busy. The harvesting for the company is almost done then as early as the end of this week we will move into the shed to start packaging. Then we will head back up to the North Island to meet up with our friend Kris and Adrian’s brother, Nathan, and travel around with them for the three weeks they are here. After we travel for about a month we are thinking of making our way down to Christchurch to find work. Everyone keeps telling us Adrian will have no problem finding plumbing or at least labour work there because of the aftermaths of the earthquakes. And I’ve done some research and there seems to be plenty of work in the sport and recreation industry for me. My old professor, Dr. David Legg, has also given me some contacts for networking at the least so I am looking forward to meeting with them for a coffee or something.

Lots to look forward to and we will be sure to keep you updated on everything! Until next post…