1 Captions by Faith Hamblyn. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016. Hello, and welcome to Rural Delivery. The issue of public access on farms has been long debated, with many viewpoints on the benefits and drawbacks of allowing the public on to properties, supporting the livelihoods of their occupants. This week we meet Barbara Stuart, who, in 1982, with her husband, Ian, and his parents, created a public walkway on the family farm. We find out about addressing the threat of wilding pines on one of the QEII National Trust's biggest open-space covenants in Central Otago. And we discover the delights of producing organically grown plums at Windsong Orchard in Marlborough. Over 35 years ago, Cable Bay Walkway became the first public walkway to access privately owned farmland. As well as the walkway, a camping ground and cafe contribute to making the Stuarts' sheep and beef farm a successful family business. Back in about 1981 or so, we were approached by the Walking Access Commission to put a walkway in. My father-in-law was alive in those days, and my husband, Ian, and they thought it would be a good thing. Grandad had put the track in ` you wouldn't be able to do it these days ` when he bought the Glen end of the farm. And he came in with a bulldozer and the spirit level, and they put the track through. And shortly after that, the phone started ringing. It's turned out to be really a positive thing for us. And it has actually become an asset that we've been able to leverage off by putting in the campground. My husband, Ian, and my father-in-law were very concerned about stock over lambing and particularly the cows at calving time. So we have an arrangement whereby on the 2nd of August, the walkway's closed, and it opens again about the 2nd of October. When we set up the walkway, in those days, it was Lands And Surveys. Here in Nelson area, the Department Of Conservation administers the walkway. That's the day-to-day running of it. Any problems or concerns we have, we can ring the DOC area office. But the things that the Walking Access Commission these days is looking for is free, certain, practical and enduring. So we have an easement, a legal easement with the Department Of Conservation, who look after us, for the walkway to go through our property. And there are disclaimers at each end, that tell people to stick to the track and they are responsible for their own behaviour. Well, the value that the commission brings is they're keeping our heritage of, um, the Kiwi way. And that's the new piece of work that the commission's doing right now is valuing our cultural heritage, the Kiwi way of allowing people access, but also, people appreciating that access, people respecting the rights of the landowner to earn a living off that land and their stock etc. My father- and mother-in-law were very generous. They understood, as you see for yourself, the scenery here is so beautiful, and they enjoyed sharing that with the public of NZ. And when the walkway opportunity came along, they took it up gladly. And over the years, 20 years later, we've been able to leverage off that well-known walkway to help keep us here. Because farming this sort of hill country is difficult ` it's not a moneymaker. Um, you hang on by your fingernails, really. And if we want it to pass on to the next generation, we have had to do other things than just sheep farming. So I say to people don't throw the baby out with the bathwater ` there may be opportunities that come from sharing wonderful scenery and the beautiful outdoors with the wider community. There's 1000ha of land, roughly, but we farm about 240ha. We've got a good climate here. We grow grass pretty much all year round. We've got a lot going for ourselves in that way, because we can lamb reasonably early and get lambs away, chasing that early market. We're running 1100 ewes at the moment. Yeah, we're running slightly below its capacity, but we've had a couple of dry years, so we're just, sort of, trying to make sure that we've got feed at the right time of the year. Most people respect the property here, and I can just get on with the day-to-day jobs. And, um, people just, um, stick to the markers. Now and again, you might get someone that gets a little bit lost or they're unsure how far to go. Um, and if I'm driving past, they might stop and wanna have a yak, uh, which is fine, yeah. And if we've got stock coming through the tracks, sometimes we just have to tell them to stop or move the other side, which is not really a big problem at all. Most people, they look at the views and they say, 'Oh, it's awesome.' You know? Sometimes it is a good reminder, cos you get stuck in your own world, doing your day-to-day jobs and yeah, you sometimes haven't got time to always stop and look at the view. This is the Cable Bay Holiday Park. It's a campground on the end of the farm. We put this in in 2002 because of our farm being a hard hill country uneconomic property. And this was a bit of a leap of faith for both and Ian and I. And Ian had the courage to do it, and I followed along dragging my feet. And, um, it's turned out to be a really important part of our family business. We've got about 30 campsites and 24 of them powered. We get a lot of Nelsonians coming out, and they go glamping here. We've got good hot showers and a nice kitchen and refrigerators and a trampoline. Ian and I have worked really hard, and in recent times it all got too much for us. So our son Sam, he has been running the farm, and now our niece Jo is running the camp for us as we move towards retiring. About six or eight years ago, the cafe opened, and we're the landlords for the cafe. And that's another bonus for us, to have a cafe right beside the camp and for people doing the walkway. It's bringing people in and gives them something to do when they're here. They can have a swim in the summer or a cup of coffee or just go for... A lot of people do part of the walkway, they don't do it all, and, um, it just helps draw people in. We'll return to Central Otago on the property of an international music producer, who's investing huge amounts of money in controlling wilding pine trees. 1 What's invisible, absolutely free, is everywhere and can save you up to $100 in fuel every year? It's air. These cars are identical, but this one has less air in the tyres. In a random check of 100 cars, half had underinflated tyres, so the engine is having to work a lot harder to move the car, which uses 4% more fuel... and... it's not safe. With correctly inflated tyres, handling's improved, it's safer, and it's using less fuel. You could save around one tank of fuel a year. To find the correct pressure for your car, look here, check the manual or use our tyre pressure tool. Here's a tip ` check your tyre pressure every month and before long journeys. If we all used the correct tyre pressure, NZ would save enough fuel to fill 1500 of these. 1 Welcome back. Left unchecked, wilding pines could spread to cover up to 20% of the country within 20 years and cost the economy over a billion dollars. Soho Properties covers four iconic stations in Central Otago, and around $1.2 million has been spent to date in wilding-pine control. The properties are protected under the QEII National Trust's largest open-space covenant. There's 55,000ha. It's owned by Soho Property Ltd. The principal, or the only shareholder, is Mutt Lange. There's four pastoral leases. They're all adjacent. They take in five river catchments and part of Cardrona. He's got a very strong environmental conscience, and his family actually looked at coming at immigrating to NZ when he was a child, so he's had a long interest in NZ. He came out over three years and went the length and breadth of the country and finally settled on... on purchasing Motatapu and Mt Soho. The wilding issue is that basically, our whole environment's gonna change. Unless it's addressed, the country as we know it will be no more. And it's happening so quickly that it's scary. Initially, with pastoral leases, one of the requirements of the lessee was to plant 20 acres or 10 acres of pine trees. The Crown were saying, 'Look, you've got to have some forestry on this country,' cos a lot of it was bare. And that's what they did. A lot of infestations come from those various plots that are right through the high country. We've got three main species, that I see it, as the major enemy ` uh, Douglas fir; Sycamores are a real problem, and larches. Larches are actually easy to kill, but they really move around. They go higher than our natives. And the Douglas fir, in particular, will overtake our native. Initially, they move into the native, and then ultimately, they dominate them. It's generally where there's either been mining activity or there's been homesteads or, you know, there's been... there's a seed source, and,... um, the infestation generates out from there. So we've just simply taken out the main points of the seed source, and then worked our way back in. But ultimately, we are going to have a problem with... um, as you get closer to civilisation, if you like, or the main Wakatipu Basin. That's where a lot of the problems are. This one here, we've initially sprayed all the main seed source. And then we wait for a chance to let anything that's going to germinate germinate, and then we'll go back in and take all of that out. Further over here, we had ground staff go right through and physically cut it out. We didn't want to take out our native, uh, flora. And, um, you know, that's about five years ago that was done. And you can see up there that the regeneration's scary. But there's no seed source there, so when we do it again, we'll do it with a spray the second time. Hopefully, the third time, we'll go back in another five or six years, and hopefully, by then, we'll be seeing some marked difference. We'd like to see this come back in native. And once the needles drop off, these'll turn into skeletons, but they provide a degree of shade that natives really like, and we've got a good chance of establishing mountain beech in some of the areas. The soil and water values on a lot of country, in our view, are actually more important than any potential grazing propositions. Uh, and we would like to see this go back into pristine... into a pristine environment, if we can achieve that. We will certainly work in that direction. How old is this? It's not a plantation, is it? It's, uh, self-seeded. No, it's self-seeded. From over where the old Welcome Home Hotel was. Apparently, there were two trees over there, and they're responsible for this whole infestation. 'We're sitting on the boundary of Coronet Peak Station, 'which is one of four properties owned by Soho Properties Ltd, 'which is the principal shareholder is Mutt Lange. 'About two years ago, which is just when I started my job with QEII, 'Mutt approached us to protect the conservation values on these four properties via a QEII covenant. 'And QEII registers covenants in perpetuity against the title of the land, 'so it binds any successive owners.' When I picked up the job, um, Central Otago is one of the larger QEII regions in the country, but I had less covenants than any other region in the country. I think the average size of a QEII covenant in NZ is around 40ha. Uh, my first job on the beat was, uh, this covenant, which, uh, upon survey, turned out to be 52,000ha. So it's actually by far the largest QEII, uh, covenant in the country. I think it's increased the area protected by about 25%. And that's not belittling all the smaller covenants around the country, which protect really important biodiversity values, particularly in the lowland more modified areas, but we were excited to have the opportunity to be involved in land protection on these properties. They've long been known as some of the most iconic stations in NZ, quintessential Central Otago landscape, with alpine areas, permanent snow, tussock grasslands. Yeah, amazing biodiversity values. And then on top of that, we've had gold-mining since the... 1862, I think is the first strike in the Shotover. And the landscape tells that story. QEII's role is to work alongside the landowner. The ethos is that principally, it's the landholder's responsibility. But we help out, um, through regular monitoring; we provide advice; um, where the opportunity arises, we help assisting in getting other funds. And we've done some work with funding providers, such as Central Lakes Trust and the Conservation Community Partnership Fund, so we're helping out there. And I think, um, having QEII involved certainly raises the profile of the property. And something that I'm still learning and I've been surprised about is just the number of people, uh, in the community that are involved in this property. Just in the short time I've been working with it, I've worked with the Arrowtown Community and Village Association and the Arrowtown Business Promotion Association; uh, DOC is obviously integrally involved with, um, pine control and neighbouring land; and then you've got mountain bikers doing work on tracks and the Wakatipu Walkers doing work. So there's a real community involved and also in wilding-pine control, which is great. After the break, we meet organic growers Jenny and Bob Crum at Windsong Orchard. MAN: There's me when I was a nodder. You could say anything, and to cover up being a bit, uh, hard of hearing, I'd just nod. You wouldn't believe what I agreed to, like lending my brand-new chainsaw. So I said yes to Bay Audiology. WOMAN: And right now at Bay Audiology, we'll give you 20% off Advanced and Elite range hearing aids so you can save on our amazing new technology. Call Bay Audiology and book your free hearing check today. 1 Hello again. Windsong Orchard is a 2.5ha mixed fruit orchard. The BioGro-certified property has over 20 varieties of plants, seven varieties of blueberries, table grapes, kiwifruit and three kinds of feijoas. Bob and Jenny Crum own and operate the business with help from a steady stream of willing workers known as Woofers. We initially bought a piece of land around the road, a smaller piece of land, and once we had babies, we realised we couldn't be spraying in the front yard, so we learned about organics and ran it. I'd done a diploma in horticulture at Lincoln and landscape tech. But Bob was a city boy, and he had to learn from the word go. He wasn't too sure that a fruit came from the flower. He knew that you had to have the two. So he's come a long way. We looked at the backyard at the time, and we had two beautiful plum trees and went, 'Those things are bulletproof.' And that is the key to organics, I think, is finding the crop that doesn't get diseased so well, so you don't have to fight it. We'd come from California farmers' markets and saw the potential for direct selling. So we then realised that we should have a range of products that kept our stall at the market the longest, cos we wanted the market to succeed. We have seven different kinds of blueberries; over 20 varieties of plums now that Bob's grafted on to the nectarine root stocks; and we have feijoas that follow on and table grapes, the old-fashioned table grapes that people remember stealing from their grandmothers. You know, blueberries sell themselves ` people now know that they are good for them. But plums, I love selling the plums, and we'll sometimes have six varieties along the front. And I have them all for tasting. People will taste their way along, and there's always one that they'll go, 'Oh, my grandmother's tree. 'This is the one I haven't seen for so long.' We've been certified BioGro now almost 30 years. And initially, people thought we were crazy and they'd ask us, 'Oh,' you know, 'will the fruit keep as well?' But now a lot more people are looking for organics. And selling at the farmers' market as well, it just means that we have such direct control of it all. So it suits us, the whole selling process like that. 'The farmers' market is the best way for a grower to sell. 'And I've seen a lot of small businesses start there and move on, because you get direct feedback.' We'd bring along varieties that we thought were good, and they wouldn't sell so well, because we have tastings, and they might not like the flavour. Or we have, um, a plum that we don't like the flavour of so much, but it's pretty and people buy it. And so that way, we can learn what sells well, um, what the customer demands, cos that's obviously the main point behind it. Plums, it's like having different fruit, you know? Each plum is so distinctive to each other that I could find a plum for everybody's taste, I think. Say, Louisa, which is the plum that I like to offer people that say they don't even like plums, and it's quite like a nectarine, super-sweet, no tart skin. This is the lovely Louisa. It was found up north, fantastic flavour. It comes on later in the season. We'll pick these partially by colour, but also by feel. The little bottoms get a velvety feeling. This one, Hawera, is a NZ variety, and it was found as a support and developed from that. And it's great. It's a red-flesh plum, fantastic flavour. It's not a big variety, but we love it. And we've turned a lot of people on to it. Our main point of difference with the plums is that because of our size, we're able to pick them ripe. We'll touch each plum many times before it's harvested to get just the right feel. It's taken us years to understand, when is the right time to pick it? It will still ripen off the tree, plums, but if they're not ripe enough when you pick them, they won't ever achieve that super-sweetness. It's very labour-intensive. And I think that if we worked out how many hours it took us for the money we make, we might get pretty depressed, so we just don't. We have a great lifestyle. We love what we do. It's a satisfying job. We make enough money so that, yeah, we make a living. We have different reasons for the varieties that we have, but largely, we've chosen them for flavour and for their ability to withstand aphid attacks and brown rot or other diseases that they may have. We've been certified for, like Jenny said, about 30 years now. Mostly, organic is about trying to improve the soil, and the soil biotas and microbes in the soil, we found are not only beneficial, but actually essential for growing of plants. There's a whole universe of life below the soil that very little is known about, except that it's absolutely necessary. And the best soils are the ones that have the highest microbial activity. So one the things we do for soil fertility is put on... We can grow them in, uh, my little shed there. We buy the concentrated form of the microbes and feed them molasses. Uh, in a week, they're multiplied in their billions, and this goes out through my irrigation every other night. And that's part of what we do for soil fertility. Sometimes to conventional growers, it looks a bit shocking here with some of the weeds, but like I say, it's not a beauty contest. We do grow things like comfrey, which is beneficial for the soil. We've tried to minimise our use of water, but unfortunately, this soil is so bony, and it's very free draining, which fruit trees love it, but they need the water. But we absolutely rely on the Woofers. We've been taking Woofers for 25 years, I'd say. We've had hundreds of Woofers through here. We try and make it a good experience for them. But there's so much physical labour in picking blueberries especially. They're a very good fruit to grow, but they do require lots of labour. And I think that's the only way you can make a small farm like this viable ` you'll have to have high-value crops. And that means a lot of labour. Can I have two 500g bags of blueberries? Sure. 'We have now got more customers coming to us, which is very good. 'This year, the gate sales have been up. People are coming looking for us now, which is what we wanted. 'We have no room for expansion, really. We've filled up the property now with fruit. 'And it's enough for the two of us to manage. And that's the key, I think, is not to get too big.' Because we, um, can treat the fruit so well, we end up with a very good-quality product. If you get too big, you end up having to employ more people, strip picking, you know, and you lose the satisfaction of it. I like feeling we give the best that we can. For more information on these and other stories we've covered, visit our website via tvnz.co.nz You can also watch this or previous episodes you might have missed on TVNZ On Demand. Next week ` addressing waste and reducing environmental impacts in the viticulture industry by FMR Group engineers. Setting the standard in animal and staff welfare, food quality and the environment at Kumanu Lamb. And helping to create a market for Kiwi Garden's freeze-dried snacks for kids with Agmardt. Thanks for stopping by. We hope you'll join us again next time. Captions by Faith Hamblyn. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016.