400km and 9 hours by bus north of Brisbane is Bundaberg. A town which is famous for the local brewed rum, the own ginger beer and the vegetable fields all around town. Not to forgett the huge sugar cane industry, probably the biggest suplier for whole Australia. Yeah, and to be honest thats all Bundaberg has. Town itself has all the usual shops and shoppingcenter, a few nicer old buildings like churches or a few cityhouses, some parks, the botanical garden, swimming pool, a little zoo with emus and the river which has some beautiful sunsets.
To say it in short form: a "normal" middlesized town on Australians eastcoast (thought the next beach is 15km out of city center) with nothing "specicial" to do (except some cool spots at river and park). Perfect to safe up a bit money while working - the only reason for most of the backpackers to come here. Lets start again with the jobsearch ;)

I was unbelievable lucky to be honest! After just 2 days in the Grant Center Hostel they had a job for me - I couldn´t believe it!!!! Picking cheerry tomatoes ;)
Actually it is a quiet easy job. The only thing is that it was on contract, which means you have to be as fast as possible because you get paid for each picked bucket of tomatoes you picked. The 30°C sun don´t make it much easier to get fast, just to get more and more sunburned. But I wasn´t to bad I would say. Depending on the day, the workhours, the size of the tomatoes or the amount on the bush I made in around 7 hours 15-25 buckets (average), each bucket with 7kg of cherry tomatoes. Makes maybe 70-100 Auz$ per day.
For the first job here in Australia it was allright. The money was´nt the best and in the end of the day your back hurts from going up and down, but better than nothing. You have to get started with something or not? And - even if everybody said I´m totally crazy - I really enjoyed to do fruitpicking again. Honestly. Actually I loved it just to be back outside the whole day in the sun, to pick with the speed I wanted, make breaks whenever I wanted, listen the whole day to my music and think about "god and the world". And the best on it, we could eat as many tomatoes as we wanted :)
A bit over a week I made it, then there came the ofer of an hourly paid job. - To safe up some money for later travels thats the better oppertunity. So we´re moving from the GrandHostel to the Nortside Hostel, starting the new job the very next day.

Out of the sun, back in the cool shed. Kind of sad because I enjoed the picking, but somehow I have to earn money or not?
For the packing we´ve got just one big belt where the melons get washed and then get out in one big "bowl" where we pack them (sorted between the sizes) in boxes. I don´t know how to explain it better - just have a look at the pictures to imagine it :). Easy, but boring and we stand the whole time on one place, packing endless melons with the speed of the belt. Picking was - at least for me - way more enjoyable.

Our first day in the rockmelon packshed was as well the first day of the whole rockmelon season. And like every season it is starting slowly, means we didn't work as many hours as we hoped (we all wanted money) and we had sometimes couple of days off.

In town itselft is not much to do except maybe spending money on useless stuff - you go shopping so you're not too much bored. None of us had a car so it was difficult to get out of town to all the cool places. Still, on some days of we made it:)

The time with so many days off did'nt last for long. Soon we started to work more hours and FULLTIME. And when we started to work 10-12 hours a day, 14 days without day off - we missed the relaxed times! But it was very good money like that. And at work we're getting faster and faster with packing rockmelons. More and more we work allround and help everywhere out. Making boxes, packing melons, closing and marking boxes... Makes it way more easier to work different things, dos'nt get to boring like that and we all have lots of fun joking together!

More and more you can see all the lights and christmasdecorations everywhere. Santa, glitter, coulerful lights and even the big CHRISTMASPARADE is already over. Yes, it is soon christmas - I can't ignore that anymore. But for us from Germany it just dosn't feel like. No snow, darkness at 4pm, cold temperatures or christmasmarkets. Here with 30degree and sun it just feels strange - even it is my 3rd xmas in the sun now! And after all, this year I want to make it with barbecue to the beach - just how it is "normal" for all Aussies or Kiwis living near the sea. After some complications we finally make it to rent a car :)

Christmas evening does'nt get celebrated here. So we have to work the day over and just have a few beer in the evening with the leftover people (most left for the big cities to celebrate). The "real party" starts here on the 25th, Christmas day. We take the car and go out in the morning for a swim at Moore Park Beach. And the water is just warm, amazing! For lunch we make it to Bagara Beach with a yummy barbecue - and beer of course! Short visit at Burnett Heads and the lighthouse and then off to Agnes Waters. It's a huge sand beach, good for another swim and the "sunset".

Next morning then the Boxing Day. We have to go to work again, no boxing-shopping tour for us. But luckily we start a bit later in the morning. Time enough to take the car up to the Hummock lookout for a beautiful sunrise over all the sugarcane fields. Over the already sunny coast road back to the hostel and back to work again...

Was a great Christmas - after 3 years over at that end of the world I even made it to the beach ;) Just the sunburn is horrible hurting!

Back to work now with less people - the most of us backpackers left for christmas. Just couple of new people come to finish up. So we get more and more ALLROUNDWORKERS. We hardly pack anymore, mostly help out closing boxes and stable them high up on the palletts for the transporting. That is way more exsorsting work, but a lot more to enjoy for me than standing and packing!

Another week at work and NEW YEAR is already here. More people leaving everywhere to the big cities. The hostel is really quiete now. But still lots of fun on New Years Eve at the river :) And on New Years Day of course, our farm is the only one to work!

Time pases very fast, specially if you're busy working the most of the day. And the season goes towards the end. That's when I desice to use my flight from Melbourne to Asia (which I bought over a year ago where travelplans looked different). It's a suddenly decision, so I've got just 2-3 days left in Bundaberg to prepare everything before I'm leaving. Just perfect is the end of the rockmelonseason as well my last day at work. Couldn't be better timing. The next night I'll say goodbuy and take the bus down to the Melbourne Airport.