YOUR INDUSTRY
James Brown and Jordan Cheadle were offered nine jobs on orchards
Horticulture just one option for WHV backpackers Backpackers James Brown and Jordan Cheadle were offered nine jobs the day they advertised for work on social media. By Anne Hardie The English couple have been in the country since September 2019 with Working Holiday Visas (WHV) and since February they have been working on Willisbrook Orchards in Tasman which grows apples and kiwifruit. They chose the job because it had platforms that would make it easier for them to pick fruit than climbing ladders all day, and they were sent photos of the accommodation. It meant they knew what was entailed with the job before they travelled hundreds of kilometres to commit to it. Their New Zealand adventure follows a year-long working holiday in Australia where between them they separately worked on a banana farm, cattle station and sheep farm. When they headed to New Zealand, they had no plans and little knowledge of the country. The two worrying things they did know about New Zealand was that the pay rates were lower than Australia and the living costs were higher. 32
The ORCHARDIST : MAY 2021
They could get work in Australia for about A$25 per hour compared with about NZ$18 per hour in New Zealand. Initially they stayed in Auckland where James was a truck driver and Jordan worked in recruitment, and they had plans to head to Queenstown for the ski season for work. Then Covid-19 and lockdown came along so they stayed in Auckland until November, when they belatedly headed in their camper to Queenstown. At $50 a night to sleep in their camper in a campground, it was too expensive to stay there long and after a brief period working in Kaikoura, they looked for orchard jobs through harvest. That’s when they were immediately offered nine jobs. “You can tell they’re struggling to find workers,” Jordan says. “Most backpackers have left – there was a bit of a panic to get on the government organised flights after lockdown.”
