Queen Charlotte Track

I Traded My High Heels for Rubber Boots

It is Sunday, March 30, 2008. I just got home from another 12 hour shift at Delegat's Oyster Bay. I am enjoying a glass...well a couple glasses...of 2006 Jacob's Creek Grenache Shiraz that I purchased at Supervalue this morning at 7:30 AM.

It has been a rough week of work. I have cuts and bruises from lugging all the hoses and machinery around and my feet hurt. Oh how I miss my high heels. My high heels are far more comfortable than the rubber steel toed boots that I am required to wear. I have an Oyster Bay uniform that I wear to work. I was given two shirts and one pair of pants so I do laundry every day. The shirts are denim long sleeve collared shirts and the pants are navy.

The harvest is still slow here. The grapes haven't quite matured and ripened yet, and it has been raining the past two days so things are on hold. It makes for some very long nights. Last night I was busy. I started work at 7 PM and was assigned a COW--Cellar Operation Work Sheet to do an addition via a dripper to a stainless steel tank. Well, a dripper basically drips, drips, drips liquid into the tank and I had to add over 40 Liters of stuff to drip into the tank! So I sat up there and watched it drip and read my Shape magazine that my mom sent me in my goody package. This was how I spent my first hour of work. Then I had to setup some pumps and mix up some additions to add to two more tanks. Setup and watch. Setup and watch. That was my night.

I posted some pictures from when I went hiking, or tramping as they refer to it here, on the Queen Charlotte Track around the Marlborough Sounds.

New Zealand Nights

I just completed my second 12 hour night shift. It is amazing how fast a day goes when you work 12 hour shifts. Here's a breakdown of my typical day:

6:25 PM get picked up by Catch-a-Bus and head to winery
6:35 PM arrive at winery and enjoy a nice espresso
6:45 PM begin work
10:00 PM Smoko-term for New Zealand break
10:15 PM back to work
1:00 AM Lunch/Dinner ???who knows what to call it at this time of night
1:30 AM back to work
4:00 AM Smoko break--this is when I overload on caffeine
4:15 AM back to work
6:45 AM shift change
7:00 AM clock out and board Catch-a-Bus
7:15 AM arrive home and check email
7:30 AM go to bed
1:00 PM wake up and eat breakfast, play on computer, run or go for a bike ride, lay out in sun, etc.
5:00 PM get ready for work
6:25 PM start all over again

The first night went really fast because I spent the first 9 hours power washing barrels and the last 3 hours cleaning bungs,, the rubber stoppers that go into the barrels, and listening to music. Last night, my second 12 hour shift was extremely long since there wasn't any barrel work and no grapes to process. We were given the option to go home, but I didn't think it was a smart since I am trying to switch my sleep schedule and such. I did some additions to tanks, setup for dispatch of wine into trucks, chilled some wine in tanks, cleaned steel railings and then layed on the cement cellar floor for about two hours. Tonight we are supposed to get a couple tons of grapes so we should be busy.

I posted some pictures of the winery. Check them out.

Becky

Delegat's Wine Estate Oyster Bay

Night Shift

Happy Easter everyone!

Harvest has officially begun at Oyster Bay. Today we received the first grapes, Sauvignon Blanc, at the winery. It's 2:09 AM and I am eating dark chocolate, drinking instant coffee and thinking about how I intend to stay awake until 7 AM. Our 12 hour shifts began today, but I was assigned the day off--we get one day off every 14 days and I was lucky enough to get the first day off. So to prep myself for my first 12 hour shift tomorrow night, I am trying to stay awake until 7 AM. I have already painted my toes, plucked my eyebrows, went for a run, went to the local pub for a few drinks with a couple of my housemates and now I am wasting time on the computer.

Today I went for a nice 5 mile run around the countryside of Renwick. I love running here because I am surrounded by vineyards and hillsides. On a side note, it is quite funny to see how the kiwi's manage birds in the vineyard. They actually drive around on a gator/tractor and shoot shotguns to try to scare them away. There are funny signs posted "Shooting in Progress". I have witnessed these shootings firsthand and honestly the birds just fly from one side of the vineyard to the other side. It is quite entertaining. I have signed up to run a half marathon in Christchurch, New Zealand after vintage ends on June 1st. Between working long hours at the winery and running and training, I should keep myself busy and get back into shape so I will be ready for this year's Chicago Marathon in October.

I am thinking about doing another vintage in the United States this fall. I am looking at either Oregon, Washington or somewhere in the Midwest. I would like to be an intern at a smaller scale winery so I can have more responsibilities and variations of job duties. I have applied to a few wineries and will see what happens over the next couple of weeks. If anyone has any connections, please let me know.

Well, I am going to work on captioning my photos so I can post them here and on Snapfish.

Good night!
Becky

New Zealand St. Patty's Day

Sweet As Bro

Picture of Me, Andries and Gabrielle

As the kiwi's say life is "sweet as bro!" here in New Zealand. Translation for "sweet as bro" is rather good, great or cool. I cannot believe that I left Chicago almost one month ago.

I just finished my second week at Delegat's. The grapes haven't been harvested yet, so there hasn't been much vintage work to do at the winery. Wednesday we found out our shifts and job assignments. I was assigned the white cellars position for vintage so I will be working with Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc grapes. This week I have cleaned barrels--this entails dumping the lees, washing them out with water, steam cleaning them, wiping them with sulfur, scrubbing off stickers and putting sulfur water in them. Other than that I learned how to setup and clean tanks, scrubbed the floors, bagged sulfur additions, cleaned the boiler room floor and did lots of walking around and socializing.

Wednesday night we had a pre-vintage party at the beach. We drank some beer and wine, played soccer, rubgy and cricket and had a BBQ. It was really fun.

This week the grapes will start to arrive, so we begin our real shifts. I am working the 7 PM to 7 AM shift. I am really excited because when I get off work I will be able to have some day light hours to enjoy. I also get to work with Gabrielle, the other woman in my house. We are going to have a lot of fun!!!

This weekend was fantastic! Friday our house finally got WI-FI hooked up so later this week you can expect some pictures. Friday night I attended a party at one of the other vintage houses in Blenheim. Saturday I got a ride into town to do some major grocery shopping. I was in heaven! It is a 20 minute drive to the nearest real grocery store. I stocked up on so much food because our little grocery store here in Renwick is comparable to shopping for groceries at Walgreens. I spent the entire day eating, uploading pictures online and relaxing. Today five of us went for a bike ride and did some wine tasting in our area. It was sunny and beautiful.

All of my headaches have disappeared and I feel great! I have learned that I need to relax a bit more and enjoy my free time more. I miss everyone a lot and will have more stories to post later this week.

Love,
Becky

I love WI-FI

Great news everybody! We finally have broadband and WI-FI! This is my best day in New Zealand yet. I just finished my second week of work at Delegat's. The grapes aren't quite ready yet, so we have done a lot of socializing, cleaning and standing around. It is great here. I will write a more in-depth post tomorrow. As they say here Sweet As!

Becky