Planting the Vines

I had a very busy time on Meadowbank Station this morning. The fun I had there photographing different aspects of the establishing of the new areas of vineyards made up somewhat for the disappointment of Team New Zealand losing out to Oracle in the Americas Cup race earlier in the morning.
I was able to drive right onto the vineyard area which meant that I could carry some heavier camera gear. The dogs waited patiently in the vehicle while I walked all over the area with camera in hand. I discovered that the rows that I photographed and put up on Blip last night had already been planted with vines. These grapevine plants look very insignificant in the actual ground. They look like little twigs sticking up about 15 to 20 cms above ground level. Very easy to miss in the distance.
It was all go in the vineyard. A tractor and trailer loaded with posts was crawling across the ground. Three young vineyard workers from Vanuatu were busy placing the posts alongside the rows of tiny vines. The post driver was in action driving posts into the ground.
At the northern end of the vineyard a special piece of machinery for planting the vines was just being started up again after morning tea break. This “Planter” is hauled behind a tractor. The tractor is all set up with GPS systems in order to plant the vines in the correct location. The ground had been cross-hatched with lines for setting the GPS co-ordinates. It was all a bit technical for me to fully understand but I found the process fascinating. Two men sit on the trailer each with a bin of plants in front of them. As the trailer is dragged along it digs a trench and the men just reach down and shove the plants into the ground.
Other workers follow on foot to gently tramp the vines more firmly into place. So two rows of vines are planted simultaneously.
There will be more action after the weekend, with further planting, positioning and driving in of posts. It rained overnight here and more rain is predicted over the weekend so the little plants will get a good start. I will be back in the vineyard next week to record progress.