Frost Fighting!

So, when I first heard the Kiwis talk of frost fighting, I thought that maybe it was a cute little saying... make the early morning activities involved in keeping frost off the vineyards seem more glorious.

Now I know better.

As we speak, there are helicopters flying overhead. They should replace "frost fighting" with "waging all-out war on frost." It would be more appropriate. There are wind machines, helicopters, special water jets and all manner of weapons employed against the frost.

My boss said I should join them some mornings for frost fighting. As he said, "You might as well. You will be up anyway. That is the unfortunate thing about living on the vineyard... When there is a frost, the whole vineyard is going hammer and tong."

I now see I will either need to find a different living situation, or start watching the weather forecast for nights when I can sleep a full night. :P

~ matt

Photos of my home for a couple of months

This is the view out my back door. The little building is the hut that I am staying at. :P

~ matt

Long Overdue Update

So, when I last wrote, I was about to leave Kristin and head to Felton Road Winery to hopefully get a job. Well, one week later, I am employed at Felton Road Winery and have just completed my first week of work!

So, first, a little about the location... It looks so much like the Western Slope, I was a little surprised when I first arrived. Think Palisade. It has dry hills and lots of sandstone formations and orchards and vineyards.

The winery is cute and low key. In fact, I had already gotten a job and worked a bit before I realized just the class of winery I had somehow managed to get a job at. The revelation came when I noticed a little note in the break room thanking the vineyard crew for their help in making a 98 point Pinot Noir! A 98 is rare. Very rare. A little research, and Felton Road is one of 5 wineries in NZ that Robert Parker lists as excellent (5 stars). That is kind of a big deal. Needless to say, I feel pretty lucky.

So, my first week of work was a little rough. The winery crew is amazing, but the work is tough. The vineyards are on rocky hills, and I have been dropping the support wires to get ready for bud burst. Basically, it feels like I am hiking 8 hours a day. And my legs are not used to that kind of work, so my first week has been marked by sore legs, blistered feet and cut hands. I am sure it will get better as I get used to this type of work again.

Wednesday lunch was with the owner of the winery who opened 2 bottles of wine and broke out cheese and bread. Friday afterwork beers were followed by being given 2 bottles of wine that had been opened for a tasting, but would not be used over the weekend (the tasting room is closed weekends!). I have been given eggs from the happy little hens that run around the vineyard. It is a great atmosphere.

And I guess I have been working out well for them, because Gareth, my boss, offered me employment for the next 12 months. I have already made plans for Nov and Dec though, and kind of have my heart set on being home for Christmas. However, there might be a possibility of flying back here after Christmas, or maybe coming back to work for the following season. Of the two, I think I like coming back for the next season sounds better to me. Everything is still up in the air though.

I am currently staying in a little hut on one of the vineyard sites. It is perfect for me, and even comes with internet. Unfortunately, most people in the NZ pay for their internet by a block of download amount. What that means is I have 1 GB a month of internet. That is fine for checking email, but no movies, music, or even uploading pictures. I am going to try to find somewhere in town that will let me upload my pictures. It is really striking how much this place looks like back home.

Some other general impressions:

• Kiwis have a reputation for being extremely nice. I think this is more of a product of being a whole country of small rural communities than anything else. I don't think their niceness is necessarily greater than people from small rural communities in the States. And they have their fair share of rude people... Don't let anyone tell you different.
• I am collecting a list of my favorite and least favorite Kiwi-isms. So far my favorite is the use of "wee" instead of little. So, you take a "wee break," a "wee car," etc. It can also be used ironically, as in "it took him a wee bit of time to figure it out" meaning it took him 2 full days. My least favorite by far has been "smoke-o," which is a work break. It can be either the break itself or whatever small snack you brought to eat during your break. I think my hatred of the term has to do a little with how it was introduced to me. After asking what a "smoke-o" is, it was explained followed by a "good thing you came to NZ so you can learn your own language." It would have been humorous if they had been joking even a little. But no, they did not even recognize that it was Kiwi slang, but rather that it was the proper way to speak English.
• NZ is extremely isolated, and I really think it has affected the countries mentality. For example, the nightly national news covers all kinds of trite stories about towns being renamed and such, but almost no international news. I thought it might just be TV news, but then I opened the paper to the "World News" section, and it was horrible. And as a result, many Kiwis are not aware of international events... I would even go so far as to say they are worse than Americans in this regard.
• The above causes some really bizarre things to occur. Kristin related this one to me: Her school had an Oktoberfest event in which students were asked to wear German clothes. Kristin arrived to a hall full of Kiwis dressed in clothes with swastikas painted on them, dressed up as Hitler, and even a couple dressed as Holocaust victims! This, to the Kiwis was German clothing. She was absolutely shocked, and some German exchange students were much worse. As explained to Kristin, they are so isolated, and had no real exposure to WWII and the Holocaust that they don't even understand what they were doing. Kristin and I are still a little shocked by how you could be sooo isolated from the rest of the world to not understand the significance of the Holocaust. Ugh!
• NZ does, despite what you hear, have some significant issues troubling the country. Child abuse, including sexual abuse, is rampant. Racism is rampant as well, especially against Asians (and no, Kristin has not be the target of any of this). This is to the point where TV anchors following a story about violence against an asian school girl actually made jokes about the school girl. Violent offenses have much less sever punishment here, so a man who killed a gay man by breaking a banjo and shoving the broken neck down the man's throat and leaving him to die got 8 years. Say you stab someone 200+ times? 15 years. Some 13-14 year olds went into a school room, held the teacher down as they beat a boy with a softball bat, and this story was buried in the middle of the local events section, and I am not sure they boys will be punished at all. I makes me really uncomfortable.

Hmm... That is kind of a down note to end this post on. NZ in general is really nice. Perhaps this is just culture shock hitting me a bit late. I know there are lots of issues in the States as well, and maybe I don't give them as much thought as I should.

Ok, I am well. I have a job! The job is amazing and I am happy. Missing Kristin, but not much to be done about that. Should get easier once I meet some people here.

I have a feeling I will be bringing a lot of wine home for presents. And it is beyond delicious. :)

~ matt

Car!

It is my car! Yes, I know it is tiny. Even with the seat all the way back, I have to turn my legs sideways just to get into the driver's seat. It is a 1989 Honda Civic 36i Special Edition with 290,000 km on it (~180,000 miles). It has tons of kms on it, but is in great shape and runs really well. Because of the special 1.6L engine it has, it rockets up hills but still gets great gas milage (~36 mpg). It should be nice and cheap to run for the 3 months that I need it, and hopefully will still have decent resell value. It cost me $800 USD, and with car insurance and a tune-up will still be under $1,000 USD.

And already in the first week of owning it, it has more than paid for itself. Kristin missed all of her plans for the second half of her break due to her illness, so we decided to go out for a couple of days to make the most of the last 4 days of her break.

First, we drove to Hanmer Springs for the night. There is a lovely little hot springs there, and so the day was spent walking around and sitting in the hot springs... a nice way to unwind from the stress of the last week.

Next we drove to a beach on Pegasus Bay and camped just off the beach. It got cold at night, but it was fun exploring the ocean during the day. Kristin and I even managed to accidentally go wading in the ocean! It started off as a "Lets go exploring over there!" and ended with us standing on a tiny little rock as the tide came in and the waves got bigger. The only way out was wading!

The rest of the day was spent doing wine tastings and nature walks. Another night was spent camping on the beach... Overall a nice relaxing couple of days.

And most importantly, something that would have been completely and utterly impossible without my own car. :)

So, my car has an appointment to get a checkup and oil change tomorrow. After that, I leave Kristin and head south. I have a meeting in Central Otago with the viticulturist at Felton Road Winery (http://www.feltonroad.com) to discuss employment! Wish me luck!

~matt