Seasonal Orchard Jobs

Picker and Bucket Assistant Positions NOW OPEN

APPLICATIONS FOR SUMMER 2024/25 ARE OPEN NOW

Picker Wage Rate $23.15 + Bonus Potential

Bucket Assistant Wage Rate $25 + Bonus Potential

Pure Pac has up to 200 field opportunities to offer as part of our orchard harvest team. Fixed term contracts are offered with variable work hours including weekends. Pickers usually start bright and early at 6am to beat the heat.

Full Season (1st Intake): 70 Positions starting mid December and finishing late January.

Peak Season (2nd and 3rd Intake): 130 Positions starting early January and finnishing late January.

Where: Near Cromwell, Central Otago, New Zealand

Bonus Earning Potential

A bucket bonus for pickers is calculated at the higher of; $TBC per bucket OR minimum wage. For example, if you pick 4 buckets in an hour you will earn $TBC If you pick 3 buckets per hour your wage will be $TBC

A loyalty bonus of $1 per bucket can be earnt by completing your fixed term contract and achieving a minimum attendance rate.

Tips for Successful Job Application

Jobs will be offered from the 11th October on a rolling basis so apply early.
Farmiliarise yourself with our accommodation options before applying here.
Have Photo ID and Visa documents ready to upload.
Applying in large groups of 5 or more people can be a disadvantage as groups this big are difficult to place in accommodation.
Make sure everyone in your group writes the full legal name of your friends. Be clear if you are traveling in the same campervan etc as your friends or if you have seperate vehicles.
Cromwell is a small rural town, there is no public transport, you will need a car to get around comfortably.
You do not need a CV to apply, but please fill out the experience section with any relevant work that you have done.
Only apply once, duplicate applications will be deleted.

All the best, we hope you will be part of our 2024/25 Harvest Team!

Apply Now

Pure Pac Portal Login

Existing team members can login to the Pure Pac Portal to view pay slips and lodge leave requests and more.

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Picking

You will be issued a picking harness to hold your bucket and allow you to pick hands free. Training on how to identify ripe cherries and pick them quickly without damaging them will be provided. We typically cluster pick cherries in bunches, but other techniques might also be asked of you.

We normally have 3 to 4 large teams of 40-50 pickers working together, known as "gangs". Any type of picking work can be quite physically demanding, it might take your body a couple of days to get used to the new movement.

Ladders

To be a picker you will need to use your ladder safely. Full training will be provided.

Orchards

Our dozen cherry orchards are all located around Cromwell, mostly in the Parkburn Quarry and Mount Pisa area, there is also one in Bannockburn. We have one orchard in Queensbury which is a little further out of town, you will receive some paid travel time for working on this orchard.

For your own convenience we recommend having your own transport or sharing with someone in your gang. We do provide shuttles for those who don't have transport although spaces are limited.

Barcodes on buckets

Each picker is assigned a unique barcode. You have to make sure that your barcode is on all the buckets you picked as you get paid for each bucket.

Field bins

All buckets with cherries get scanned into a field bin which is how we transport the cherries.

Bucket Assistants

Bucket assistants move the full buckets to the end of the rows, where they get scanned into the field bins. Bucket Assistants and Quad Bike Drivers share the same position. They move the buckets down the rows of the orchard to the field bins and then move the field bins with a quad bike & trailer.

Field QC

Field Quality Controllers make sure that only the best cherries are picked for our customers.

Tractor Drivers

Tractor Drivers move the field bins.

Quad Bike Drivers

Bucket Assistants and Quad Bike Drivers share the same position. They move the buckets down the rows of the orchard to the field bins and then move the field bins with the quad bikes.

Seasonal Packhouse Staff

We need Seasonal Packhouse Staff for our Cherry Harvest

When: mid Dec - beginning Feb

Where: Cromwell, Central Otago, New Zealand

Packhouse Jobs