bakpacker #3 | How to profit from the kiwi season in New Zeland.

If you'd read the last posts of my Backpacker series, you know that by the time that I arrived at Te Puke I was in a bad economic condition, after my expensive nights in Auckland.

I went to Te Puke because I was following some friends there. They explained to me that was easy to make money there, Te Puke was the capital of kiwi.

I was no sure of what to expect, and I was not prepared for anything, I was there because I was blindly following my friends. Everything I learned, I learned on the go once I was living in Te Puke.

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Picking time. By @cnandofer

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So what kind of job can you expect to do with kiwi? There are two places where you could get a job during the kiwi season:

Work outside, picking fruits on the orchards.

You can work as a kiwi picker, the bay of plenty is a region populated with tons of orchards that hired thousands of backpackers every year to do the picking of their fruits. The region is full of contractors, who are the link between the workers and the orchards. You'll need a car because is the only way to get to the orchards, either you buy one or share expenses with someone that has one.

Pros of picking: If you are part of a good team of pickers you can make between $150 to $200 per day that is a pretty good salary for a backpacker. If your English level is not that good it doesn't matter because is a very straightforward job, most of the people are from Latin America or Asia. In general is a good option if you're physically fit and very active, I considered as my daily training.

Cons of picking: The main problem with kiwi picking is that you get paid for the number of fruits that your team pick. If you're in a team where some people are not fast enough, you can end up making $40 on a 10 hours day. On the other hand, it relies heavily on the weather, is there is rain there is no picking.

Working inside, packing fruits on the packhouses.

There are packhouses on the main cities of the area, in some places, there are two or three packhouses. Isn't necessary to have a car, because the packhouses are normally inside the city or town. Is possible to go to work walking or with a bicycle, you'll probably meet someone that will offer you ride.

Pros of packing: Even when the days are long, it isn't as hard as picking. The weather doesn't affect the packhouses as much, it needs to rain several days in a row for a packhouse to run out of fruit to pack. In general, the job is more stable.

Cons of packing: Is harder to get a job in a packhouse, is necessary to arrive early in the season to have better chances to get a job. It's a steady income but it's better paid a good week of picking than a week of packing. It can become tedious and you have to be inside of a building for long periods of time.

Did it work go for me?

When I first arrived was too late to get a job in a packing house, they didn't have any vacancy. In the other hand, it rained for at least two weeks so there were no picking jobs neither. Basically, in my first weeks, I made friends, drunk and watched movies every day until I finished my money.

When the picking started, I changed contractors because they insisted on putting me with the worst teams of people that they had. I was making around $70 per day until I found a nice contractor that matched me with a good team and that's when I started making around $150 per day.

When the end of the season was getting closer, a friend of mine told me about a job opening on a packhouse. I combined the Monday to Friday job on the packhouse with picking weekends everytime that I felt like doing it.

It's possible to make good money during the kiwi season, it helped me to finance the next part of my trip. By the end of two months, I saved $2,000 without being very strict with my budget. I was still having parties 2 to 3 times a week, depending on how tired I was.

It's a hard job but there is a lot of money to be made with kiwis, make sure to have a good team and contractor if you decide to go picking, don't be afraid to change contractors if you're not making enough money. Be careful with the random drug tests of the packhouses, is the main reason why people lost their jobs.

There are other fruit industries in New Zealand where you can make good money but the kiwi was the only one I did. For what I heard from other backpackers, the cherry season in the south island is the most profitable. Whatever you decide to do, have fun and enjoy the ride, money comes and goes.

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