Country Life

This week Country Life meets a couple who are still inspired by the rugged beauty of Tairāwhiti to produce honey and art from their bees despite having lost many of their hives to Cyclone Gabrielle, and they also chat to a pair of Karamea dairy farmers who are putting their remote and beautiful farm up for sale lock, stock and barrel.

Cate and Mike King of Pauariki Honey lost a quarter of their hives after Cyclone Gabrielle hit Tairāwhiti in February. They also faced a poor season of manuka flowering. But the raw beauty of the region and its people keep them going and provide inspiration for Cate's batik-style art which in turn is helped along by the bees.

This week Country Life meets the O'Malleys who have realised their dream of farm ownership after saving for ten years. Also, ag training without a classroom and a forester making the most of his 30 year old exotic plantation.

Christopher and Siobhan O'Malley stand in a paddock with smiles that could melt one of the nearby West Coast glaciers. The couple have finally achieved their long-term goal of farm ownership and now have their own slice of paradise.

Richard Thompson planted Papaiti forest with alternative species 30 years ago. He never dreamt at the time he would become a timber merchant with a joinery workshop and retail shed.

RNZ's rural news reporter, Leah Tebbutt, takes a look at the week's agricultural news.

Agricademy doesn't have classrooms or a campus, instead students can dip in and out of on-line videos, filmed with experts in the dairy or wool shed.

Push your way through a tangle of bush only kilometres from the Napier-Taupō highway and you are on an ancient pa site. Tangata whenua sheltered here hundreds of years ago but this site is known to only a few. Country Life joins a group documenting the region's cultural sites on a walk to discover a hidden treasure.

As well as managing 4 farms and 35 staff, Jack Raharuhi is a passionate surfer who finds his mindfulness on the water. Country Life visits him at Pāmu's Cape Foulwind farming complex near Westport.

Under new ownership Tio Ōhiwa, or Ōhiwa Oyster Farm as it was formally known, is bringing fresh oysters and opportunity to locals' plates.