A Red carpet departure

I arrive at Napier airport, numbed at the thought of the journey ahead but excited at seeing Mandy & Lauren again.

John Key, the prime minister of New Zealand wanders into the terminal building and I introduce myself. He urges me to write positive things about New Zealand in my report.

Later I curse the policeman who failed in his brief to take a photo of me shaking John Key’s hand however if I ever choose to exact revenge I should be able to obtain fingerprint evidence from the photo that I have of his index finger. Instead here is my grainy photograph of John Key strolling up to the hire car desk. Security was so tight that both of the Hawkes bay police force turned out.

Just as my flight to Aukland is called over the tannoy, the prime minister wishes me a safe passage. When am I ever going to get a presidential send off ever again?

My last full day in New Zealand and finally a day off!

Having spent Five days at Hamner springs trying to ignore the mountain bike hire shop across the road from the hotel I finally manage to get out in the excellent Hawkes bay mountain biking area. I had a great 5 hour ride, slightly shortened by a broken chain.

Mike McCabe invites me for a post work Friday evening drink after which I go for an evening stroll around Napier, the art deco capital of the Southern Hemisphere.

As I summit the cliff footpath a sight unfolds which completely sums up the New Zealand economy, the Napier container port.

FINALLY - A CIDER APPLE TREE

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My final afternoon of study and I finally spot the fabled EBRO planting system. I track down the orchard owner, Mike McCabe and it transpires that he owns the Kingston cider company (and Hawkes bay brewery) that I had continually been told about. He even shows the elusive cider apple trees and gives me details of the Hawkes bay mountain bike park.

HAWKES BAY - NEW ZEALANDS SUNSHINE COAST

Hawkes Bay

Brett Ennis of Prevar meets me off the bus and spends time explaining his role in plant breeding and helps me form a programme for the next few days. I get the impression that Hawkes bay growers are far more corporate and more conservative than those I met in Nelson.

PALMERSTON NORTH

The city very much reminds me of an American town. Block after block, the local dudes screech around in Japanese cars with tin cans for exhausts. I find salvation in a 50 metre outdoor pool and manage to grab a Sunday roast at “Grandma’s roast house”. For a university town it was pretty dull.

I saw an interesting compaction busting machine being used in the park.

Massey university are very Innovative and forward thinking, and Dr Ian Yule was particularly helpful. I also meet Raury C Flemmer who introduces me to his robots and has developed a robotic Kiwi fruit harvester.
I guess I was quite pleased to get the bus out of here on Tuesday morning, especially as there was the first rain I had seen in New Zealand in Three weeks!

The moon Man

I arranged for a shuttle to pick me up for my Fifteen minute trip to the airport. Two other people had been collected from an hour “up country”. They happened to mention the name I recognised and within Two minutes of conversation they turned to me and said “so you’re the Nuffield scholar then”. Clearly I hadn’t covered my tracks effectively!

I got the opportunity to visit Craige Mackenzie in the Canterbury plains. New Zealand was still reeling from the devastating earthquake and I met many people who had been directly affected.

The press was full of predictions from “the moon man” who had correctly forecast both previous large earthquakes and was expecting another one this weekend. The flight was virtually empty as apparently most residents had chosen to vacate Canterbury for the weekend. Transiting Canterbury airport and stopping off in the outskirts of the city was a pretty surreal experience for me. I chose not to become a “disaster tourist” and was amazed that in the areas that I passed through I didn’t even spot one a sign of earthquake damage despite being only Five miles from the epicentre. An unknown fault line turned out to be the eventual downfall of an apparently beautiful city. More disconcerting was the fear that I could experience an earthquake myself at any time and yet everybody around me were just carrying on as normal.

My drive to across the Canterbury plains reminded me of crossing the Kansas and Nebrasca flatlands except that I noticed the irrigation channels running alongside the road contained torrents of water with 3metre weirs about every half mile.

Craige assured me that they had a beautiful mountain backdrop but rather like visiting Wales, it was shrouded in cloud. He’s harbouring some very interesting precision Agriculture initiatives.

Back on the plane the following day heading to Palmerston North and you guessed it, Twenty minutes after my departure a level 5.4 earthquake struck Christchurch, fortunately there was no further damage.

YEALANDS - THE BITS THE CSC DID NOT SEE

These are some of the statistics and bits of the operation we didn't see!

• 1000 Ha estate, 850 Ha Vines
• 14000 Tonnes grapes / Yr
• Ten new 175k tanks, total tank capactities 11million litres
• Each tank = warm or cold Glycol around rings to control fermentation. Tanks in cold room, wine will get to -3
• Wine bulked out for bottling elsewhere
• Prunings boilers for heating tanks
• 30 Tonne intake hopper

Staggering!

Marlborough – Woofers & Tweeters

Julian kindly lends me a car and I return to the wine region at the north Eastern point of the South Island.

Peter Yealand gives me a hearty welcome and Peter Mann is on hand to give me the low down on sustainability within their company. He offers to TWEET me to keep me updated. I have included photos of the Yealands plant as we never got to see it on our CSC visit and it is immense!

I moved on to the Seresin estate, a biodynamic vineyard. Colin Ross exhausts me on a whistle stop tour as he suddenly has remembered that he had a prior engagement. I am left reeling at what I had just seen and was fortunate to bump into Sean Phillips who introduces me to his gang of “woofers”. Initially I thought that he was being rude, as they were all female, but he went on to explain about the  World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms or WOOFER Organic Farming service, akin to the Kibbutz scheme.

My initial thoughts were “cheap labour, that fits well with my study topic” though the longer I spent with them the more I realised at how well informed, enthusiastic and engaged they were with the estates work and the land. Surely this is what we all strive to instill throughout our staff but this clearly demonstrates that peoples needs extend beyond merely paying them to do a job.

NELSON - NEW ZEALAND'S "EDEN"

I prevail upon Julian Raine for my Six day’s in and around Nelson. Despite it being his busiest time of Year and time spent at the Wellington leg of the CSC he warmly welcomes me to his home. I think Cath is now quite used to Nuffield refugees.

I meet some very interesting people in a whirlwind tour of orchards & processing plants. These guys are so focussed and producing some extremely impressive fruit and products.

I find a cider plant and have a tour around it but they cannot direct me towards any cider apple trees.

Guess what, the local public pool is just 2 minutes from Julian’s house!

Budget Whale Watching trip!

I awaken to the sunrise across the bay and supress the urge to text the photographs to my fellow scholars who by this time would be languishing in Hong Kong airport transit lounge.

The glassy flat sea is just too inviting and with a fisherman’s endorsement I go for a dip.

A dozen strokes in and I hear an almighty splash and experience a turbulent stern wave. As I lift my head to breath I see a massive Grey snout and arching body disappearing over my left quarter.

It probably only took Six rapid strokes to return to shore.

The fisherman assures me that it can’t have been a dolphin as it was solitary and must have been a seal which at worst can merely bite you. Not entirely convinced I return to the sea and knock a mile off. The following day I learn that several hours after my sea life encounter, a rare Pygmy whale is stranded on the beach.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/4769975/Shot-whale-washes-up-on-beach

People pay a fortune for experiences like that!

John Palmer I Presume ?

Trying to organise a short notice study tour around New Zealand has proved very challenging, particularly during an intensive contemporary scholars conference.

At the outset my sponsors suggested that I visit a renowned pomologist, John Palmer in Nelson New Zealand.

It transpires there are Two John Palmers in the Nelson area and I find myself spending 24 hours with John Palmer, the chairman of Air New Zealand and board member for numerous other business’s.

Within Six hours of bidding farewell to my fellow scholars I am on a dream like “grand designs” set and enjoying a wine and a barbeque with John and Sally, overlooking the Ocean.

Thanks very much to both of them, surely things can only go downhill from here!