Seasonal work:

Motueka has traditionally been a popular place for New Zealanders, travellers, and tourists alike to find seasonal work. The readily available orchard work has tempted many people to spend time in the area during the summer months, enjoying the opportunity to make some extra money during their time in New Zealand while they see what Motueka and the beautiful Abel Tasman National Park have to offer.

Golden Bay Fruit 2008 Ltd has work available from October to June every year. We begin the seasonal work period in late October with kiwifruit flower picking and pruning, then we move into apple thinning in December. After a break over the festive Christmas and New Year period we have summer pruning in January. February brings the busy harvest season. There are many picking and packhouse jobs available from February through until June.

Some requirements:

No experience is necessary for most of the work that we have available. We will give you training when you start your employment. You will need a valid work permit, an Inland Revenue (IRD) Tax Number, and a New Zealand bank account for your wages. A good level of physical fitness is required for most positions especially the outdoor work in the orchards. We recommend that you plan to work a minimum of several weeks to allow for a period of training and to maximise your earnings. Most positions require you to work Monday to Friday, eight hours per day. During the harvest season longer hours of work may be required but there is also the opportunity to earn more money.

Finding accommodation:

While Golden Bay Fruit does have access to some staff accommodation, we cannot always guarantee that we will have a vacancy for you. We recommend the nearby backpacker hostels in the town of Motueka. Most hostels can provide a reasonable weekly accommodation rate.

Types of work available:

Kiwifruit Flower Picking: the newly opened flowers are harvested by hand and milled for their pollen which is then blown over the kiwifruit orchards with blower machines to ensure a high pollination rate and large numbers of fruit. You are paid by the weight of flowers that you pick and harvest.

Apple thinning: Removing the undersized fruit from the trees by hand to allow the larger fruit to grow bigger. Requires a good level of fitness. You will be using tripod-like orchard ladders. You are generally paid by the number of trees completed.

Picking Fruit: Using large padded baskets and ladders the fruit is picked from the trees by hand and loaded into woooden bins before it is taken to the packhouse. You are paid for the quantity and quality of fruit that you pick. Care must be taken to handle the fruit gently.

Summer Pruning: Some of the spring growth on the apple trees is pruned off to expose the apples to the light to allow them to ripen, and to open up access between the rows of trees.

Packing Sheds: The fruit moves over computer-controlled conveyor belts and is automatically sorted into sizes. It is then receives a final visual quality check and is sorted by hand onto moulded cardboard trays that are then placed by hand into cardboard fruit cartons. The cartons are stacked onto wooden pallets before being stored in temperature controlled coolstores. There are a variety of jobs available from feeding the moulded trays onto the conveyor belts, to sorting the fruit by hand, to stacking the cartons onto pallets. You are usually paid an hourly rate for this work.

If you would like more information about working for Golden Bay Fruit 2008 Ltd, please contact us: