Its on

All the interns have arrived, and the harvest has officially started. The entire crew, including interns, permanent cellar, lab and winemaking staff, is 35! There is a total of 26 interns from all over the world, including Brazil, Chile, France, UK, Germany, Australia, Italy and the US. There are only about 8 of us in the intern house though, as the others are living in and around Blenheim.

From this point on, Yealands will be running on a 24/7 schedule through around mid May. Yesterday was our first day of work at the winery, but it was more of an orientation. We filled out some paperwork, did some safety training, learned about sustainability and green practices Yealands employs, took a tour of the winery and had a BBQ at the end. Its been rather cool and windy lately, even raining lightly at times, so we all ate indoors. The forecast calls for some clear and sunny weather beginning tomorrow, so we should be getting lots of fruit coming in around the clock shortly.

I will be working on the night shift beginning tonight. The shift will run from 7pm-7am 6-7 days a week, somewhere between 72-80hrs a week. I am not quite sure how the tasks will vary on a nightly basis, but it is safe to assume that there will be lots of cleaning, transfers, racking, working the crush pad, and cleaning (did I say that already?). In general the night shifts clean more than the day shift, but we will be doing much more than that with the scale of the winery. Malcolm, who is one of the permanent cellar staff, said that they typically process fruit through the middle of the night, until about 2am depending on the volume. With mechanical harvesting being employed by Yealands and the majority of NZ vineyards (New Zealand has been very innovative and efficient with their winemaking approach since the 1970's), it makes it easier for them to bring fruit in at all times.

I was actually happy to see that I was on the night shift because there are more things open during the day, including using the internet at the info center down the road. At this point some of the blokes (hehe) from England and I are looking for a new place in Blenhiem. We will "hitch" into town this morning/afternoon to check out some of the available housing postings at the train station. Yes, I said hitch as in hitch hike, which is considered very safe and normal in New Zealand. If we can find a spot in town for a good price we will be moving within the next few days.