Trevor Reville – 43, Kilmore, Co Wexford

For many years Trevor was a one-man band, driving his own articulated lorry on general freight duties. He always took a few weeks off each year to help out some local agricultural contractors at the silage campaign. Likewise, he often took early evenings and weekends to help a local tillage farmer sow crops in the spring and harvest the crops in the autumn.

Shortly after the economic downturn, Trevor found it harder and harder to get by with the lorry. One day he came across a job advertised with an agricultural contractor in New Zealand.

Going to New Zealand to work for a season was something Trevor had always wanted to do, but he never found himself in the situation where he could make the commitment to travelling across the world.

He struck off for his first season with AT Cook in Rotorua in 2014 at the age of 36.

Although Trevor’s wife, Laura, told him he could only go for one season, six years later he has continued to travel over and back for each season ever since. Originally going over to drive a truck, Trevor was soon put in charge of manning the loading shovel on the pit. He now spends around five months in New Zealand each year before returning home to sow crops for a tillage farmer before working the silage season with another contractor and finishing up the harvest in the autumn.

Trevor has no plan to stop going back and forth to New Zealand each year. As he said home is still home, and although it’s great to go over for the season, he likes getting home to see his family and help out on the family farm. His wife Laura and son Charlie often come over to New Zealand for Christmas. Trevor also plays a big role in sourcing staff in Ireland for the contractor he works with and for some of the neighbouring contractors.