The rather sleepy and unremarkable town of Blenheim sits on the north-eastern corner of the South Island. It’s close to the sea, but not close enough that you can see it. It’s close to some big hills or small mountains (not sure where one distinction ends and the other begins), but not close enough that they dominate the landscape. The town has decent amenities – a good-sized, if shabby, library, a selection of stores and restaurants of both the chain and independent varieties, a pool, a theatre, and a field in which to play and watch rugby – but little in the ways of charm.
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| Sadly, so far this is the nicest spot I've found in town. |
All in all, the town would be nothing to write home about (though, here I am doing just that) if it weren’t for the delicious wine that the fertile land around these parts produces. The vineyards here stretch on for kilometres in all directions. Not only do these vineyards provide some picturesque landscapes, they also provide mucho temporary employment for the cash-strapped traveler.
Most of the hundreds of backpackers that are loitering around Blenheim this time of year are here for the harvest. They’re either picking the grapes, loading said grapes onto tractors, or processing them at factories. They work every day of the week, unless it’s raining, and even then they’re up before the sun waiting to get picked up by the contractor who will later decide whether they’re working or not that day. The shifts are long and tedious, generally running for 12 hours at a time. I even know one unfortunate soul who logged in a 26-hour shift the other day(s). How inhumane is that?
I was fortunate enough to stumble upon some less strenuous, and more interesting, work at the Makana Boutique Chocolate Factory. I get two days off a week, and my shifts are 8.5 hours long, which means I’m making less money than I would on the vineyards, but I’m OK with that. I’d much rather have time off to enjoy life than money sitting in the bank.
And I am enjoying myself. At work I spend my time rolling truffles, hand-packing the fancy little boxes of chocolates they sell at $30 a pop, dipping shortbread into chocolate, and, of course, ensuring quality control by tasting everything in sight.
And Oh. My. Goodness. Is it ever good.
We’ve got truffles of the vanilla, orange, cherry, lemon, pinot noir, champagne, Irish cream, and boysenberry varieties, to name a few. We’ve got butter toffee coated with chocolate and sprinkled with macadamias or cranberries. We have macadamia brittle, orange brittle, shortbread, biscotti, chocolate-dipped ginger and citrus peel, and, one of these days, I think we’re going to be making caramel corn (be still my heart).
That’s not to say that there aren’t some tasks that are less than fun – when you spend eight hours straight rolling truffles, it does do your head in a bit. But I have a great group of co-workers who make the days go by quickly and enjoyably. There are only four full-time employees in the kitchen, plus me and another backpacker, and two women who take turns manning the shop out front.
One of the quirks about my job is that the kitchen is surrounded by glass that looks into the shop, so when customers come in (often by the busload as part of wine tours), they stand at the windows and watch us at work. It’s unsettlingly like being in a zoo. For the most part I ignore people, though when I do accidently make eye contact it’s a matter of smiling politely and trying to look like I know what I’m doing. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of myself at work, but dozens of people touring NZ sure do.
Here are a few pictures I found on Flickr that show my place of work or some of the things we produce
I’ve been here in Blenheim three weeks and counting. Other than my visit home over Christmas, this is the most stable I’ve been since September. It’s rather nice.
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| I drive by this pretty, dead tree every day on my way back from work. I like it. |
wine, chocolate, hard work, and it's like being in a zoo? My kind of place!
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