Chelsea and the Chocolate Factory

Working in a chocolate factory
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Last time I wrote I was heading back to Auckland to catch up with my cousin and hopefully sort out another wwoofing placement.  The weekend with my cousin was a great success (BBQ, a few beers and a game of Trivial Pursuit).  The search for a wwoofing placement was decidely less so.  After what felt like three quarters of a day on the phone I did finally manage to find another placement - at Organic Delights, back up north of Auckland again!  Luckily this one was out on the Hibiscus Coast - not so far north and an easy bus journey from the city.

Getting my hands dirty...
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The really exciting thing about this placement was that Organic Delights is an organic confectioners, so a bit different from the usual vegetable growers and chicken keepers that make up most of the wwoofing options!  The owners of Organic Delights live about a half an hour drive away from their business premises so due to the commute I was asked if I would mind working full days and then having full days off instead of the usual half day arrangement.  I was happy with that as I thought full days off would allow me to get out and about a bit more.  Happy that is until I actually started the work!

Messy, but most torturous of all you can't lick your fingers.

The finished articles
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This placement was definately the toughest I've ever had.  Firstly, 'full days' turned out to mean up at 6.30am, leave the house at 7.30am, work from sometime after 8am until gone 6pm with only a half an hour break.  Secondly, for the first day and a half my task was digging.  Just digging, nothing else.  I had to start by weeding out comfrey.  This is more like excavation than weeding, as the root is about a foot long and snaps if you try and pull it out.  Then, I had to dig two large strawberry beds, line them with braches and compost and then refill them again.  Lots of shovelling and not much fun.  I'm the first to admit that physical labour isn't my thing but I've done digging and heavy work on other placements and been fine.  I think what killed me this time was the fact that it was full days not half days so there was no recovery time in between.

Organic Delights stall at the Matakana Farmers Market
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Despite valiently singing along to all the Rocky Horror tunes on my iPod whilst wielding the shovel, by lunchtime on Day Two I was ready to quit.  Mutiny planned, I was rehearsing my resignation speech in my head and determined to slink back to Auckland with my tail between my legs.  Fortunately for both my sanity and my back, the afternoon of Day Two saw me asked to work in the chocolate factory instead of in the garden.

My first task was to prepare some biscuits for the oven.  I was given the mixture and the industrial sized baking trays.  It then discovered that I learnt that commercial baking is not like baking at home.  You can't just dollop a bit of mixture out on to the tray and bung it in the oven.  Instead, each biscuit has to be exactly the same shape and weight as each other biscuit so I had to weigh out each dollop of mixture so it was 20g correct to within 2g and then use a frame to spread the mixture out and ensure all the biscuits were a uniform shape before they could go anywhere near the oven.  Two hours and one hundred biscuits later...

The chocolate masters in action
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Day Three of the placement again saw me in the factory.  Tasks for that day were: a) produce lime peel by grating more limes than I thought I would ever need to grate in a lifetime, b) hand enrobe truffle sticks with chocolate (more on this later), c) wash up - FOR THREE AND A HALF HOURS and d) assist with packaging chocolates and biscuits for sale.  It was interesting to be in the factory and find out about the process of chocolate making but grating limes and washing up was pretty dull!  Getting my hands into the actual chocolate was an experience though.  To enrobe the truffle sticks I had to keep dipping my hands into a bowl of liquid chocolate and rolling the sticks between them to completely coat them.  Messy, but most torturous of all you can't lick your fingers.

After three full days of work, it was time for my days off.  Which was lucky as after a day and a half of digging followed by a day and a half of standing on my feet all day I was so sore I was less able to walk than lurch about like a mummy in a bad 1950s horror movie.  Still no lie in, instead it was up at 5.30am to drive up to Matakana for the weekend markets.  Organic Delights have a stall at the Farmers Market there each week so I helped set up, chatted to a few customers and then took my time off to wander around the markets, treat myself to some exceptionally good food and engage random strangers in conversation.  (You do that a lot when you're travelling on your own cos if you don't you can go days without talking to anyone except bus drivers).

It was a good set up at the Market; permanently covered stalls, chairs and tables for the punters to sit at to eat their various purchases, a live band and apparently one of the largest Farmers Markets in the Auckland area - although only about one eighth of the size of the Farmers Market in Winchester I go to back home!  I also had the time to wander out of town to the craft market and have a browse through the shops before charming a few of the last customers at the stall and then helping to pack up.

Feeling I should explore the area a bit more before it was time to leave, I spent Sunday at the Waiwera Thermal Resort.  This sounds a lot grander than it is.  It is a complex resembling nothing so much as a local authority leisure centre swimming pool with slides, pools and a movie screen.  Overrun with children, screaming and splashing during my visit, the experience was a bit too large scale for me.  It certainly helped my aching back and sore muscles to spend a couple of hours relaxing in the warm mineral pools but I really could have done without the children.  Overall, I preferred Ngawha Hot Springs further up the coast which was admittedly a whole lot more basic but also much more intimate and generally pleasanter.

Then, after the hard work but also lots of fun, it was time to return once again to Auckland to prepare to return home for the FA Cup Final, armed with Pineapple Lumps (a New Zealand institution in confectionery) for the family to try.