Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police are at the scene of a serious crash in Picton involving a truck and a motor home.

Emergency services were called about 7.45am on Saturday to the scene on Dublin Street.

They said initial indications were that one person had been seriously injured.

The road was closed, and diversions would be in place.

Police asked motorists to avoid the area.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Emergency services are attending a serious crash where a vehicle has crashed into a river in Wairoa, Hawke’s Bay.

Police said they were still seeking to confirm whether anyone remained trapped inside the vehicle.

Emergency services were called about 4.10am after a report of a vehicle leaving the road and entering the water near the intersection of Carroll Street and River Parade.

Police said cordons were in place, and motorists should avoid the area if possible.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The declining state of some waterways is putting whitebait species at greater risk, according to the Department of Conservation (DOC).

DOC’s new freshwater fish report has found 28 percent of species are facing extinction and 32 percent are at risk of becoming threatened.

Inanga – one of the six species fished as whitebait – has moved from being classified as ‘At Risk – Declining’ to ‘Threatened – Nationally Vulnerable’.

The conservation agency said the worsened status reflected problems with the species’ spawning habitat, which was estimated to be less than 100 hectares nationally.

Since the last report of this kind in 2017, 11 species had worsened in status and 12 had improved, but DOC said that was largely due to better data rather than reduced threats.

DOC freshwater species manager Emily Funnell told RNZ habitat changes, such as sedimentation and shifted rivers due to climate change, were driving the problems.

“When we had Cyclone Gabrielle a few years ago up in the North Island that actually really impacted Inanga spawning habitat because whole rivers shifted from where they normally were.”

Funnell said that the areas would recover and come back over time, but it could have “pretty significant impact” on the fish.

She said to help fix the problems, people could get involved with community groups that restored habitats, fenced off rivers and got involved with regional councils.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Set on the coast of Hawke’s Bay, Te Aratipi Station offers walkers on the farm views across the bay, from the Māhia Peninsula right around to Mt Ruapehu on a clear day.

After walking more than 6000 steps across lush green farmland, the group of walkers are rewarded with beautiful views of Te Motu-o-Kura, also known to Hawke’s Bay locals as Bare Island.

This is only the second season Te Aratipi Station near Waimārama has been open to walkers.

Ro and Ed Palmer, along with their sons Selby and Harry, are just the latest of the Palmer family to call the sheep and beef station home after it was bought by Selby Miles Palmer in 1915.

The 1200-hectare hill country station now features two main walking tracks with views from the Māhia Peninsula, through to the Ruahines, Kawekas, Manawatū Gorge, and on a clear day, Mt Ruapehu.

“We have recently started a new agritourism venture offering some amazing Hawke’s Bay farm experiences,” Ro told Country Life. “This includes some gorgeous farm walks, farm golf during summer, accommodation and a family wilderness experience, and much more.”

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Ro, who has a background in hospitality, events and tourism, started the agritourism business out of her passion for the property.

“So it kind of combines my background and what we’ve got here,” she said.

“In the Hawke’s Bay they always talk about terroir for wineries. But I feel like we have our own sense of place as well here … and it would just be crazy not to kind of share that or continue that because it is a really special place.”

They cater to a mix of locals and international visitors – the two walking groups today have come from polar ends of the North Island, Auckland and Wellington.

For every experience booked, the family plants a native tree over Matariki weekend to help restore parts of the farm which have been protected through covenants under the QEII National Trust.

“The whole idea is we kind of wanted to mimic what they do in Italy around the olive harvest,” Ro explained.

“Friends, family and even guests come and plant over Matariki weekend and then we’ll have a lovely long shared lunch to celebrate the season.”

Ro said one of the reasons they looked to agritourism was the positive experience they enjoyed welcoming visitors on farm as part of the national Open Farm days.

She said while at this stage the agritourism side of the business was done more for a love of it – with the sheep and beef side still very profitable – it also helped diversify their income.

“You know, there might be a stage where we will need to be dependent on agritourism and that’s when I’ll need to ramp things up. But in these initial stages, while we feel our way through, it’s really mainly to keep me out of trouble.”

They operate the agritourism business around the happenings on farm, and the walk is open from Labour Weekend through to June to avoid the lambing season.

“It’s really just the start of it and [we] have to figure out the stock side of things – where to have cattle and sheep and make sure everyone’s safe,” Ed explained.

He’s happy to share the farm with others though, and build on the “solid grounding” gained through his great grandfather, Selby.

“Hopefully we can carry it on, but we’ll see. Time will tell.”

Learn more:

You can learn more about Te Aratipi Station, here.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

When you control the weather, it’s possible to keeping growing all year round, as large vegetable producer Leaderbrand has found out.

Since officially opening last April, its Future Farms facility in Gisborne has allowed it to grow salad greens 52 weeks of the year.

The innovative greenhouse technology essentially means they control the weather, its manager Billy Stackhouse told Country Life.

“You have more security every week of supply with something like this,” he said.

Follow Country Life on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts.

Stackhouse has been with Leaderbrand for close to a fifth of the company’s 50-year history.

He said it’s been exciting to be part of the changes, including overseeing the Future Farms site coming together, which will help the team make “data-driven decisions” and grow better quality produce, more consistently.

The greenhouse requires no additional heating during the winter months, instead trapping warmth from the sun.

When Country Life visited, temperatures inside ranged between 33-34C, while outside it was several degrees cooler at 28C.

There are ways to manage the hot temperatures, as Stackhouse explained.

“[We’ve] just been putting on some shading spray on top of the greenhouse, so that helps take the heat and light out.”

The greenhouse also has a self-sufficient supply of rainwater harvested from the roof – an area spanning close to 11-hectares or about 15 rugby fields. The water is then transferred into a 50 million litre storage dam to be used for irrigation as needed throughout the year.

“We’re all on automated irrigation. So that’s all set up on a computer and I can manage that on a day-to-day basis.”

It’s staffed by a team of about six, including Stackhouse.

The greenhouse is designed so they can still operate 100 to 150 horsepower tractors inside.

“We have some electric machinery – an electric harvester and electric platforms, we call them, with trailers that go alongside the harvester and stack our crates.”

Technology, such as a steaming machine, has also helped with one of the most labour intensive tasks. With such great growing conditions, weeds are a pain for growers at any scale.

Learn more:

You can learn more about Te Aratipi Station, here.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

They’re only into their fourth year growing avocados but they’re already sharing their passion for the fruit with visitors from all over the world.

In March 2022, Tim Rosamond and Michele Ricou moved from Wellington, where they were working as IT professionals, to take on an overgrown avocado orchard near Katikati in the Bay of Plenty, drawn by the weather and a change in lifestyle.

But it wasn’t all plain sailing with weather challenges and the high cost of harvesting the enormous trees.

While Ricou kept working remotely in IT, there was still a shortfall in income.

“We had a really good crop the first year, and then when I crunched all the numbers in the spreadsheet and I found out that we didn’t make any money that year, I was like, wow, if that’s a year that we’ve had a good crop and we didn’t make any money, then I’m not looking forward to a year we have a bad crop,” Rosamond said.

“Michele was threatening that I’d have to go and get another, a real job. And I was trying to avoid that … so I’m like, okay, so what else can we do?”

With encouragement from friends and support from Katch Katikati, which was keen to promote the region’s produce, they launched Avocado Tours.

Last year, they hosted 500 visitors to a guided walk through the orchard, peppered with Tim’s avocado anecdotes and facts about the fruit, finished off with a gourmet tasting of avocado-laced treats including bespoke ice cream and guacamole.

Keeping the tours simple and authentic is important, Rosamond told Country Life.

“Me being the grower and sharing all my learnings in my short time … a lot of people you know, get inspired by that.

“A lot of people dream … but not many people execute on those dreams.”

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Tours account for “a highly profitable” 25 percent of the orchard’s income and they hope it will become the main income stream in five years.

“Then we’re a bit more in control of our own destiny.

“I think if we’re expecting the avocado industry to all of a sudden go back to the heydays of 10 years ago, I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

But they do hope by sharing their passion for the fruit they can grow demand.

The couple grow the mainstream Hass variety on 260 trees coming up for 30 years old on 3.4ha.

Michele Ricou said the orchard today was quite different from when they first arrived.

“It was like going into one of those European cathedrals … even in summer, it was cold, and it was dark, and when we did the pruning, it was like the worst storm had ever come through.”

Rosamond has undertaken an extensive pruning programme to cut down the high cost of harvesting the giant trees, soaking up knowledge from other growers and online.

He’s found his corporate background does help despite the “quite overwhelming” scale of the jobs facing them in the orchard.

“In the corporate world, you might have weekly, monthly or quarterly goals that you might be focused on. You might even have an annual goal.

“Here I’m talking about having an eight-to-10-year goal. You’ve got to break things down into manageable chunks.”

Rosamond said he was used to soaking up information when working in the rapidly changing IT industry.

“So, in three years, it’s sort of been drinking from the fire hose, but I finally feel like now I’ve got enough information.

“I just need the experience of just applying what I’ve learned.”

Visitors enjoy the park-like grounds and the bird life as well as the nuts and bolts of a working orchard, he said.

“And we’ve got a great sustainability story to tell as well.”

Originally not a big fan of avocados, Rosamond’s now a convert with a mission to convert others.

“If we can help do our little bit to increase demand, I feel like we’re doing our little bit helping people live healthier lives by growing something that we know is good for people.”

Learn more:

• Learn more about Avocado Tours here

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand