Working far from home

When a group of Papua New Guineans arrived in Blenheim in June, frosts were brewing and they were layering up clothes to deal with the cold.

Now they are ready to head home, savings in hand, having completed seven months of crucial work for the viticulture industry. The 12 workers, employed by Thornhill Horticultural Contracting Ltd, have lived in purpose built accommodation, as part of the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme that employs overseas workers in vineyards and orchards on a seasonal basis.

Thornhill PNG group leader Philip Tep said the hardest part had been leaving family and adjusting to the colder climate.

When Stuff caught up with

Tep he was cooking dinner for a couple of the other boys while they watched Youtube clips of pop music by artists from home.

Others were using the wi-fi to stay in touch with their families.

Tep first came to Blenheim in 2014. He has helped build a school back home with the money he has earned but this year he wanted to support himself and his family more. As ‘‘one of the originals’’ from PNG, he has missed only one year working on Blenheim’s vines as a RSE worker since.

In 2014, only six men from Papua New Guinea worked for Thornhill, this year they had 36.

That number keeps growing – in September Immigration Minister Iain Lees-galloway announced an increase of 1550 visas for the current financial year 2019/20 and a further 1600 in the 2020/21 financial year.

Tep said that when he first came in 2014, he did not cook very well but he quickly learnt he needed to look after himself properly. ‘‘The work we do, we need to eat well, otherwise you get tired,’’ Tep said.

Rice is a big part of the menu. Worker Jason Wall says a 5-kilogram bag lasts three of the men about four days.

That is a lot especially considering Tep said it does not even taste that good in New

Zealand. He does not even consider buying our kumara or bananas. Large amounts of coffee are also drunk, even at night.

Wall said there was so much coffee where he is from in the PNG highlands that it did not affect him. It did not taste as strong here either, he said.

Some of the men are returning workers, others are here for the first time. Tep said he did not tell the boys what to expect. For some, it was the first time they had ever been on a plane, so it was a big adjustment.

‘‘I tell them they will find out when they get here,’’ Tep said.

Each of the PNG men have different reasons for coming to make money in New Zealand.

Some do not own land at home yet, others are trying to save for a wedding ceremony (they pay their wife’s family), others want to put their children through education. Tep wants to earn enough this season to finish building his house and to install a solar power system which would cost about NZ$9000.

The school he helped build has about 500 students. His dad is a teacher at the school and his son is there too. It has permanent buildings and has been set up with textbooks and school supplies. Tep keeps paying fees for the school and for his older brother and younger sister to get through university.

Papua New Guinea has a population of just over 8 million. Tep said there were few opportunities for employment so people flooded to the main cities.

By December he was more open – speaking on a vineyard in the Awatere, with the temperature a far cry warmer than when he arrived – he was excited to be heading home on December 30.

‘‘For some of the boys it is their first time here. They cried a lot when they arrived,’’ Tep said this week. ‘‘We have been through three seasons in the time we have been here. We have worked on every corner of Marlborough since then.’’

In that time they had pruned the vines, they had done some wire roping, general maintenance and training young vines too.

He had also been promoted to supervisor. He spoke highly of his team and said he was proud of how hard they worked.

He said the first thing he would do after seeing his wife and son was go to the market.

‘‘All I want is ripe bananas, paw paw and some pineapple.’’

He said he had tried not to spend too much while he was here – but he was going home with some presents for his son, including a new laptop.

‘‘My son is in the third-grade, he got all excellences.’’

Tep is already sorting the paperwork for his visa for next season.