Country Life

Rahotu is a 300-strong close-knit community on Taranaki's Surf Highway. Among its residents are a leatherworker who crafts props for blockbuster movies and a mechanic who, when Country Life visited, was trying to find a dead rat behind a dashboard.

Julie and Mike Russell have been growing produce together for almost 40 years. Now the Hawkes Bay couple grows plums on 13,000 trees.

Why do young people choose to work in agriculture? Country Life meets Briar Loveridge who is now working in a job she didn't know existed.

Hawkes Bay's grape vines are enjoying the dry, hot summer but most areas are hoping for rain.

James Tilbrook watched his vineyard in Australia's Adelaide Hills go up in smoke in December. Around one third of the winegrowing region stood in the path of one of the massive fatal bushfires which burnt more than 10 million hectares across the country. But there's hope among the devastation.

Full Episode for Friday 31 January 2020.

With crystal clear water bubbling up under the farm shed and a cap on livestock numbers on his Taupo property, there was nothing for it but to start making beer with a hairy beast on the label. When James Cooper's not in the paddock, he spends most of his time helping his brewers make and bottle craft ales at his Lakeman Brewery set up in a former implement shed on the farm where he also finishes lambs and runs a herd of Simmental cattle.

The Williams and Eschenbach boys, aged 15 to 21, are hoping to fund their education through their own honey business. They manage the bees, harvest the honey and market the product as a team, with funds going towards paying or saving up for uni.

Meet Sue - New Zealand's top Holstein Friesian cow. She's owned by Robbie Wakelin and his brother John who, as well as breeding Holstein Friesians run a 300-cow, split-calving dairy farm in Rangiora.

Taranaki could be heading for its driest January in 40 years and central Otago's waiting for its first drop of rain for the year.