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The Nelson region is firmly rooted in agriculture.
These days it’s renowned for wine and olives (which are relatively new crops), but there have always been apple orchards.
Since the Europeans turned up in the 19th century, at least.
These days, apple pickers tend to be students, tourists with work permits, seasonal workers and a fair few families from the Pacific islands who make a couple of years’ salary in a couple of months.
Way back when, though, apple pickers were a wild mixture of locals and “bohemians” – artists, musicians and sundry odd-bods who didn’t really fit in.
Among them:
Two of the greatest artists New Zealand has produced.
Legend has it that they stayed in this (now modernised) apple pickers cottage in which we’re currently staying.
I should be feeling inspired, I suppose…..
Update 09:10:51
We haven’t been swept away by the tsunami. Yet
Mainz Daily Photo 
>Yes.
>What a lovely place for a vacation! Thank goodness the tsunami warning has been canceled in many countries. Only Japan and Russia still remain in the warning list. I really hope they get pulled off the list too.