Opotiki has quickly secured a pretty special place in my heart. It's a small town; there aren't too many shops, and the only fast food here is a Subway. Each morning as I drink my coffee on the front step, kids ride by on horseback and tractors ramble past. My local fish and chip shop still wraps their food in newspaper. On one side of the town is the beach, in the other direction you look back on lush forested hills just waiting to be explored. The sunsets are just spectacular, bathing the ocean in a pink glow, contrasted with the rugged silhouette of Moutohora Island. My heart has been set alight, dreaming of sunny days spent fishing at the harbour, taking a kayak venturing around the coast, or finding a local to take me hunting in these hills.
There aren't too many jobs around these ways, but the main industry is kiwifruit, and I have landed myself a picking job for the tail end of the season. The work is hard. You pick into bags which you wear on your front like a backpack, and they get heavy. Your arms are reaching up all day, and the vines are not quite high enough to walk under without hunching, torture for your back. But my competitive streak thrives on it, as you are paid on how many bins your team picks, so there's incentive to push yourself. I've only been picking for just over a week, but my twisted enjoyment of physically destroying my body and my desire to make a lot of money have combined to make me a pretty quick picker. It's good fun. I've found some really cool people on the orchard, and have had three pretty rowdy nights out in only one week. The most recent was dinner with some of the orchardists, where I spent the latter part of the evening drinking expensive whiskey and sharing laughs with an guy old enough to be my grandfather - he was such a character!! So there it is. Opotiki, you've stolen my heart. I'm thinking I might settle down here awhile, get a winter pruning job and base up. Watch this space... ;)
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I am a conservation field worker in New Zealand. I love mountains, sunrises, river swims, barefeet, cold beer, campfires, live music and whiskey.
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