Country Life has a new occasional series - Just Kai - where we catch up with farmers and growers in the Pacific to hear about what they are growing and how they are faring. Vea Takai's husband Keni Takai grows vanilla and other crops on 'Eua.

Bay of Plenty gold kiwifruit growers are waiting for clearance to pick the fruit. Tasman apple orchardists are still crying out for workers.

In Country Life this week - paddock-to-plate in a Raglan market garden and a slice of the action from the Castlepoint Beach Races which have been going for nearly 150 years.

Will Bowman is part of the team that farms and ferments grapes at Black Estate's three organic vineyards in the Waipara Valley. He also makes his own wine from locally sourced grapes. His first bottles of 2020 Pinot Noir, Riesling and Rose and are about to be released. The wine is called Vita, which means 'life' or 'to be alive' in Italian.

Mary Nettle is what's known as a trail angel. She feeds and waters bikepackers on the 3000 kilometre Tour Aotearoa cycle ride from her travelling kiosk, raising funds for her local community hall.

Harvesting is the busiest time of year for hop farmer Cameron Ealam and his extended family who are working from dawn to dusk picking, cleaning and drying several varieties of aromatic hop cones that grow on the long leafy vines at Holmdale Farm near Wakefield.

Twenty-eight-year-old Richard Waugh buys in 50 tonnes of waste vegetables each week to feed his herd.

Waikato dairy farmers are doing their budgets for next year and there's no shortage of ways to spend their increased fortunes. In the South farmers are trying to set up for winter but it's dry.

New South Wales farmer Graham Forbes says stock have died and lots of milk has had to be spilled because of widespread flooding near his farm at Gloucester.

Flooded Farms; On the Farm - a wrap of farming conditions around NZ; The 90s File - Richard Waugh; An Angel on the Trail; Happy to be farming Hops.