The country’s recent cold snap has wreaked havoc for asparagus lovers, reducing crops and pushing up prices.
The crop battering has also caused dire problems for hundreds of Samoans who are in New Zealand on a regional seasonal employment scheme.
Many workers are desperate to make money to send back to their tsunami destroyed villages.
It is asparagus picker Amilale Salima’s second season working for Tender Tips, the country’s second largest asparagus producer.
Mr Salima’s livelihood is based around his weekly paycheck and the weather has stopped asparagus growth meaning no work.
Asparagus is a temperature sensitive plant that needs at least a 16 degree air temperature to grow.
The cold snap of the last four days means that work and paychecks have come to a halt.
Last year Mr Salima saved enough money to build a house for his family in Samoa, that house was destroyed in the recent tsunami.
He says he is lucky his family survived but now he has to fund a new house.
“I will go back to Samoa and build a new house for my family my wife and my kids,” he says.
“My house that I built last time was destroyed. I feel sad and I feel not very happy now.”
Another cold snap similar to the last one is forecast for the lower North Island on Friday; Mr Salima is hoping it does not hang around long.