I Heard it Through the Grapevine

Time 6:00 am. Beep Beep Beep. I sit up sleepily. Must get up. 5
minutes to get out of bed. I stumble to the kitchen, grabbed a bowl of
cornflakes and milk. Ten minutes to eat. Ten minutes to change, put in
contacts, brush teeth and pee. 5 minutes to grab lunch, water, and
warm clothes. 6:30 out the door. I meet up with Annika (German), Kevin
(American), and Garrell (black Parisian) outside the hostel and we
wait together for Linda to drive us to the vineyard. Work at the
vineyard starts promptly at 7 am. Today we are vine thinning.

'Dontcha know that I heard it through the grapevine; Not much longer
would you be mine; Oh I heard it through the grapevine; Oh I'm just
about to lose my mind; Honey honey yeah…'

As I pick the leaves off the vines, Marvin Gaye is singing through my
head. I look up: at the edge of the vineyard is a stretching landscape
of mountains. Half the hill is filled with grazing sheep, slowly
moving about. The other half is shrubby wild vegetation. I turn
around: beyond the stretch of vineyards is another scenery of hazy
blue mountains. These are covered in dense pine forest. Farther beyond
on the horizon, mountains are capped with a blanket of white.

I take a deep breath. The cool wind fills my lungs, sending a shiver
through my body. But I feel cleansed, and refreshed. I finish my row,
and join Garrell on the next. We stand opposite, removing excess
leaves to help the vines breathe, and the grapes grow. Garrell tells
me about his travels through the North Island in his campervan. Even
though his English is broken, I can understand him, and he likes
practicing his English.

We are luckier than most other backpackers working on vineyards. We do
not do budrubbing as often. Budrubbing! Just the sound of the job is
treacherous. Our supervisors work with us, not above us. And most
important of all, they give us a good amount of break time. We have
tea time at 10 am, lunch at 12:30, and we finish at 3:15. All in a
days work.

Back at the hostel, everyone is just getting back from the vineyards
and fighting for the showers. Most of them are complaining about
budrubbing for 8 hours. After spending a day bending down and standing
up every few seconds, anyone's back and knees would be hurting: truly
the devil's work.

My roommates Mogdeh (Persian German), Misaki (Japan), Lim (Korea), and
I discuss the day and what to eat for dinner. Mmm…beans (muscles
hurting = need protein), corn, fresh tomatoes, and pasta sounds
wonderful! After cooking and eating together, some evening TV,
socializing, and winding down sounds good. I'm tired now…early to bed!

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