Horticulture cadet

Lynette Te Pairi enjoys working at Aongatete Coolstores and hopes to one day have her own smallholding. Picture / John Borren

Name: Lynette Te Pairi
Job title: Horticulture cadet
Working hours: 8am to 5pm for 10 months, longer hours during harvesting
Employer: Aongatete Coolstores, other growers and packhouses
Pay: $12/hour rising with experience and specialisation
Qualifications needed: Willingness to work
Career prospects: Management, orchard ownership

Describe your job.

I just booked myself into the cadetship at the Bay of Plenty Polytech. I was keen and wanted to grow [crops]. The cadetship, which is a part time, three-year course gives you an overview of the horticulture industry and growing in general and allows you to work fulltime. I'll graduate with a National Certificate of Horticulture Level 4.

At the end of the three years I want to pretty much know from beginning to end what is involved in orchard management. Aongatete Coolstores approached the polytech looking to employ a cadet and I got the job. We're just finishing the kiwifruit harvest. I asked to go into the packhouse to observe the production side of the harvest.

I became the grading supervisor. After the harvest comes the pruning then the spraying and the mowing, then observing the pollination followed by the summer thinning and pruning and back to the harvesting.

Why did you choose the job?

I've always been interested in growing but had to wait for the right time after my children had grown up. I worked for 10 years as a rehabilitation life coach in the health sector. Working to empower young people who'd had accidents and head injuries to re-start their lives gave me the courage and insight to dream about getting out in the country to learn about growing [plants].

I was in Auckland, I'm a mature woman and I had no idea where to start but i had friends in Tauranga who are growers. I went there in December 2004, asked around and started off planting avocados with a contracting gang for six months on Motiti Island. I was the only woman in a gang of 14. Then I picked avocados in Katikati to get familiar with the area and find out more about the industry. Then I found out about the national certificate.

What's the most interesting part of the job?

Aongatete has installed a computerised fruit-sorting machine. As the grading supervisor I had to liaise with the sorting machine operator. Each time the fruit comes through from a different grower the machine will sort out so much of the fruit - it will reject it or send it down to class two (if it came through to us as class one). So [we worked] at the rate it sorted and under the pressure of production. We had to learn to monitor it. It was fantastic for me. Now I've seen the harvest and a little bit of the business side. Now I go out in the field and start at the beginning.

What's the best part?

Freedom to move and being outdoors. And after being in the health sector with all that jargon, at the end of the day in this job you feel you've done a good day's work. There's repetition in all jobs but in this one because it's seasonal the tasks are broken up through the year. Every day is different. You experience the moods of the day, the different months of the year and different weather patterns. And every orchard is different.

You also get to meet interesting people. There are people from different cultures, travellers, seasonal workers, elderly people. I thought pruning would be boring but it's fascinating. Every cut will lead to how that plant is going to produce, which is money, which is the grower's income.

What are your strengths?

Good time management, adaptable, resourceful and love people.

Where would you like to be in five years?

I would like to be managing an orchard or be in a specialised growing area or have my own lifestyle block with an income.

What are the essential qualities required for the job?

You've got to like the outdoors, be able to focus, enjoy working with other people, be self contained and able to work on your own, have good practical skills and stamina.

What's your job-hunting advice?

Do a picking season or work in a packhouse. Get the feel of it. So many young kids would love it if they only knew how interesting it was.