The pick must go on: “I’d be buggered without them,” Blue Willow Citrus orchard Murray Burgess says of the mandarin pickers who are harvesting the fruit in ankle-deep, thick mud at the flood-hit Te Karaka property. Mr Burgess is proud of his workers who are turning up every morning to pick the fruit in hard conditions. “I really appreciate their hard work,” he says. The ground is carpeted in thick, gooey mud but the fruit were spared. “People who buy mandarins from the shop should know the hard work people go through to get them there.” Mr Burgess is pictured with supervisor Geraldine Crawford, quality controller Doi Crawford and Basil the dog. Picture by Liam Clayton
Gumboot-sucking, shin-deep, gluey mud is what mandarin pickers are working in after flooding hit Murray and Wendy Burgess’s Blue Willow Citrus orchard at Te Karaka, and Mr Burgess could not be more proud of his workers.
“This is it, our yearly income,” he said. “To have a flood at the