Country Life

Stags are roaring on Andrew Wellington's Waikato farm. It's an exhausting time of year for them - not only is it mating time but they're on patrol - constantly on the lookout for other stags.

Levi Harrison has answered the call of nature. The modern hunter gatherer lives in the bush in Golden Bay with his partner Annika Korsten. They practice primitive living and are not only surviving, but thriving in the outdoors.

Sophie and Sam Hurley are turning some of their wool clip into bags, caps, wallets and laptop sleeves. They've been in business less than a year but orders are flying out the door - or rather rumbling down their gravel road towards their destinations.

Farmers are starting to struggle in a drier than normal autumn in many places around the country. In Hawkes Bay apple picking conditions have been fabulous with fine, windless days.

A group of tractor loving mates are driving their vintage Chamberlains around New Zealand to raise money for Heart Kids New Zealand. The charity provides essential support for families that have a child with heart defects.

Deer farming in the roar, hunter gatherers who have honed their survival skills, an entrepreneurial farming couple who are now making caps and bags from their wool clip and the Regional Wrap.

Golden Bay is a long way from home for the Agave tequilana plant, a native of Latin America and most commonly found in Mexico. Terry Knight is growing several thousand of the succulents to produce a top-shelf spirit at his distillery at Motupipi.

Lindsay Garmson has written a book on Coromandel's now defunct granite industry. Granite from Paritu Bay can be found in grand buildings throughout New Zealand and in most of our cemeteries.

In the North Island at least one Taranaki farm's on track for a record milk production season while in the South Island Southland farmers think they've dialled up one of the best possible autumns.

Ben Stubbs killed 800 possums in his QE2 block just after Christmas. He earnt more for the fur from those animals than he did from his wool cheque off 2000 ewes. He says it makes you view road kill differently. Would you drive past a $5 note on the road? Probably not.