Country Life

Haysley MacDonald was born and bred on the family farm near Marlborough's Wairau Bar, or Te Pokohiwi. The coastal land, that overlooks Cloudy Bay, is where his ancestors first landed over 800 years ago, and have lived there ever since those early migrations.

Haysley MacDonald was born and bred on the family farm near Marlborough's Wairau Bar, or Te Pokohiwi o Kupe.

"As a kid growing up, we used to plant multiple acres of potatoes and cereal crops. We could grow them without the assistance of irrigation, and we never used fertilisers as the soil was so good here," he says.

The coastal land, that overlooks Cloudy Bay, is where his ancestors first landed over 800 years ago, and have lived there ever since those early migrations.

"They landed at the Wairau Bar, walked up the beach and into paradise. So it's a pretty special place," he says.

The location of the original settlement, across the river mouth from Haysley's property, holds significant archaeological importance. It is one of the earliest known human settlements in New Zealand.

"They used to hunt moa over there... they ran them down off the hills and slaughtered them."

"Through some of the digs that were done, we've also found the remains, in a big hāngī pit, of the Haast eagle and there's a replica of it in Te Papa, to show how big those things really were," he says.

Listen to Cosmo's interview with Haysley here

Haysley was driving trucks in the States in the early 2000's before he came home and got into the wine industry.

His Dad asked him to return to the farm, which was by then, a large dairy farming operation.

"I didn't want to be a dairy farmer for the rest of my life. And so we agreed to put in a few vineyards in 2003."

Initially, some people they knew, were skeptical about the transition from cows to grapes.

But it proved to be a sage decision.

"Everyone then used to say you couldn't grow vineyards east of the railway line, but it's become the most sought-after land for vineyards that everyone wants today," he says.

Putting in the first 40 hectares of grapes was a labour of love.

"We did the lot. We put the irrigation in the ground, put in every plant pot, every post, done it all, myself, my father and my brother and the family. It was what we did."

Within three years, they'd converted about 160 hectares of farmland into vines.

Initially, the grapes were contract-grown for other vineyards. Then Haysley bit the bullet and founded te Pā Wines…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

A round-up of the week's agricultural news with RNZ rural news reporter Sally Murphy. This week marked a year since Cyclone Gabrielle tore through the East Coast of the North Island, causing wide spread damage to farms and orchards.

A round-up of the week's agricultural news with RNZ rural news reporter Sally Murphy. This week marked a year since Cyclone Gabrielle tore through the East Coast of the North Island, causing wide spread damage to farms and orchards.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Former Wellington Percussionist, Jeremy Fitzsimons, is now based on the family farm in the Kauaeranga Valley near Thames. Bryan Crump paid him a visit.

Former Wellington percussionist, Jeremy Fitzsimons, is now based in the Kauaeranga Valley near Thames.

RNZ Concert's Bryan Crump dropped in to find out how he was enjoying life on the farm.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Jana Gabert runs a dairy farm about 30 kilometres south of Berlin. She is among farmers around Europe who have taken to the streets in protest about increasing costs and regulation amid high competition, loss of tax breaks and climate change. Last month she rode in a farm tractor to Berlin's famous Brandenburg Gate to press home farmers' concerns.

Jana Gäbert runs a dairy farm about 30 kilometres south of Berlin.

She is among farmers around Europe who have taken to the streets in protest about increasing costs and regulation amid high competition, loss of tax breaks and climate change.

Last month she rode in a farm tractor to Berlin's famous Brandenburg Gate to press home farmers' concerns.

Listen to the interview with Jana Gäbert on Country Life

Jana Gäbert is a member of the Global Farmer Network.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

School students are helping turn quake-damaged red zoned land green again at the Climate Action Campus in Ōtautahi/Christchurch.

School students are helping turn quake-damaged red zoned land green again at the Climate Action Campus in Ōtautahi/Christchurch.

They come from more than 20 schools and are involved in projects to help bring about positive environmental change.

The campus is located on the original home of Avonside Girls' High School, left neglected after the quakes.

The 10-hectare site also includes four hectares of red zoned land adjacent to the school site, leased from the Christchurch City Council.

Sandi Bobkova is the head horticulturist and one of three teachers at the campus.

"We do lots of different education programmes mainly centred around climate action, so things like regenerative horticulture, organics, and we've got beehives out of the red zone, so the kids can learn about beekeeping."

Students are also involved in planting in the red zone, checking the water in the nearby Ōtākaro/ Avon River and looking at energy sources.

The campus is also being used as a case study for a Landcare Research project.

And, this year, a refugee group from Hagley Community College is coming to the campus to grow, learn and share knowledge.

"I love the idea of them being able to have their own plots with things that are traditional for them," Bobkova told Country Life.

"I'm sure I'll learn stuff from them and I'll hopefully be able to teach them a few things."

Several vegetable gardens and a chicken run have taken over the grassy areas within the old school grounds and the netball courts have been converted into a nursery.

"This is where we do all the propagation and seed starting and all that kind of stuff."

In the red zone next door, residential houses have been replaced by tunnel houses and a newly planted fruit and nut orchard.

The last original school building was demolished recently and has left a muddy space near the vegetable gardens.

"Because the building was there, the land's contaminated, so we can't grow food on it.

"Now we have this enormous cleared space which, hopefully in the near future, will become a solar farm with wildflowers underneath it."

The Climate Action Campus is running a market on March 2.

Click here to find out more.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

A year ago the Wilson family's apple trees were bowled like nine pins when logs came crashing through stop banks and silt drowned many areas. Did the trees come good?

It's very close to a year since a brown swirling mass of logs punched through stop banks, bowling down many of the Wilson family's apple trees, leaving their Hawkes Bay orchard smothered in stinking mud.

As well as cleaning up, it's been a year of wading through paperwork and plans, of swirling among zoning decisions and loan schemes.

Can we replant and rebuild, how and when?

Despite the tumult Cyclone Gabrielle brought to her and her family, Lesley Wilson always seemed serene and matter-of-fact when Country Life checked in on her progress every few months, giving a snapshot of life in repair-mode after the worst weather event to hit the area in living memory.

Listen to Lesley Wilson a year on from Gabrielle

"It's a bit exhausting but we're getting there," she told us a week after losing more than a quarter of their orchard, their home and their offspring's, the vehicles and all the machinery in the massive February 14 storm. Not to mention having to deal with all that mud and slash.

But she had a toothbrush and a hairbrush and a change of clothes, enough for the time-being.

Three months later uncertainty hung in the air and the clean-up, on top of a meaningless harvest was gruelling.

Apples on the top half of trees sitting in silt had to go in the bin.

Silt metres deep had to be cleared, and the orchard floor levelled

She sounded frustrated. They needed clear direction from the government.

"We need to be able to make decisions about whether we can live where we want to live or not, whether we can rebuild or not.

They had fixed up a cabin on the property and were preparing for winter without the normal comforts. But she was also optimistic.

"I'm still pretty positive really, I have my bad moments but as long as the sun keeps shining it's good."

Gabrielle, if anything, had brought the community closer, she said. They had made new friends and Mary Danielson of the local Puketapu pub had looked after the locals.

"It keeps your head on straight and gives you a few laughs and you can carry on."

Mary Danielson of the Puketapu Hotel

In August she was surprised at how far they had come. They were 18 months ahead of where they thought they might be. Logs had been cleared and composted, silt was being removed. But had the surviving trees suffered under the load?

They would have to wait a few more months till blossom time, she said, do some leaf analysis, wait and see.

The community was coping but only just, she told us…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

A round-up of the week's agricultural news with RNZ rural news reporter Susan Murray.

Demand for New Zealand venison is looking strong

A round-up of the week's agricultural news with RNZ rural news reporter Susan Murray.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Country Life this week - a chat with a Hawkes Bay apple orchardist one year on from Gabrielle, the Climate Action Campus in Christchurch and a polo match under the hot summer sun

This week Country Life discovers it's not all champagne and marquees at a polo game in Hawkes Bay and school students are in the quake-damaged Red Zone, helping bring about positive environmental change in Ōtautahi/ Christchurch.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Summer at a sportsground in Hawkes Bay means the thud of hooves and the knock of mallets under the hot summer sun.

Summer at a sports ground in Central Hawkes Bay means the thud of hooves and the knock of mallets under the hot sun, sheep grazing in paddocks nearby.

Country Life has dropped in on a polo match - the Barrett-Dearden Memorial Cup - the major annual home-game tournament for Wanstead Polo Club.

Take a trip to the sidelines of a polo match, Kiwi-style, with Country Life

As the second-largest club in the country, the grounds are home to some of New Zealand's more experienced players.

"It is a cool sport because it allows you to play like a warrior. I started playing when I was 50," said Pete Hyslop, who has 10 years under his belt.

"It's pretty hard to play full contact rugby at that age but you can certainly play polo."

The teams are mixed in gender and age and the youngest player on the Wanstead pitch today is just 10 years old.

A match is split into time periods known as chukkas, each seven minutes long. A game can last anywhere from four to eight chukkas, depending on resources and standard of play.

The sport comes with traditions like stomping the divots in between chukkas.

"It's literally stomping the grass back down for the next game so the field isn't so bumpy for the players," Maria Apatu, one of the spectators, explains.

She has rallied others onto the pitch in their gumboots and hats to ensure the match runs smoothly.

In the shade, tacking up a group pf horses waiting for their turn on the field, is Pōrangahau local, horse trainer, and polo player, Wirihana "Woody" Kururangi.

He was riding horses before he could walk on the East Cape in Tokomaru Bay.

"They're amazing animals, they will put their life on the line for you".

Now he works alongside Harriet Kuru and her whānau at Opiango Hills, who train and breed horses in Pōrangahau.

The Kurus also take in retired racing thoroughbreds and give them a new life in polo.

Kururangi says this process can take anywhere from four months to a couple of years.

"We take them from the track, school them up and train them up for polo".

Polo is thought to have originated in Central Asia some 2000 years ago and has been dubbed the "sport of kings".

In the UK it has a reputation as a sport for the wealthy elite, but this isn't necessarily true in Aotearoa.

"It can be posh but it just depends where you are," Kururangi said.

"It's not as posh around here in New Zealand. We just do it the same way as rugged really". …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details