A cannery is not your usual academic internship for ecology students, so it's fair to say two American students were expecting the worst when Massey University placed them at Wattie's in Hastings.
Thankfully the reality was much, much better.
"There is a huge misconception with Wattie's because when you think
of Wattie's you think of canning," said Californian ecology student Sylvia Felix. "Obviously they do that, but they do so much more."
Along with fellow American ecology student Maddie Raine, Felix gained credits for her course by planning a riparian planting along a Karamū Stream tributary, which borders a Wattie's peach orchard in Hastings.
"We've been helping to plan it and today we've been getting our hands dirty and doing some of the actual work planting," Raine said.
