('COUNTRY CALENDAR' THEME) - (WHISTLES) - Always a favourite on every rural road ` Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2023. - Horopito is one of the world's oldest plants ` 65 million years old. They're like the tuatara of the plant world. They're a shocking plant to grow commercially, but I quite like it. - A Golden Bay family with a passion for herbal remedies and their environment. - We're truly a local business who's a deep part of this community. (COUNTRY MUSIC) (BIRDS CHIRP) (POIGNANT MUSIC) - In Mohua ` Golden Bay, nestled at the edge of Kahurangi National Park, an ancient crop is growing within the rainforest. - Horopito is one of the world's oldest flowering plants. If you think of humans as being a separate species for 300,000 years, these plants are 65 million years old, so really, really ancient. - Horopito is best known for its peppery punch, and Peter Butler's spent the last 35 years establishing the world's only commercial plantation. (BIRDS CHIRP) - We used to sell to culinary, and then we got more demand for our medicinal. The plant's got a great smell, I reckon, but really the thing that I love about it is the colour. You'd just about grow it for the ornamental foliage alone. It's been a challenge to grow it properly, but it's awfully satisfying. On the one hand, it's incredibly resilient ` it's lasted 65 million years, but it's really sensitive. So a lot of places I've tried to grow it, and I've had to give up. - They currently have 3 hectares planted. It takes around 10 years for the plants to be ready to harvest. (BIRDS CHIRP) - Hey, Trev. - How's it looking, do you think? - Well, not bad. Yeah, I reckon we're just about ready for a harvest. We've got a weather window, so I reckon we should just crack on into it. - OK. Yeah. Get into it. OK. - Trevor Paterson's been helping at the plantation for the last couple of years. (TRIMMER BUZZES) The horopito is grown in hedgerows, and today Trevor's preparing for the harvest. - I've just been trimming the sides of the rows, because when we harvest, we take the leaf off the top of the plant, and the side shoots just become a nuisance. - The harvesters we use for the horopito are modified green-tea harvesters. I've seen them in Japan ` they'll actually carry that cutting head across a row of green tea. In this case, it's mounted on a light frame, at a set height. Nifty machine, in that the one motor runs the sickle bar, but also blows the leaf back into the bag. - Starts off easy and gets harder as you go. Or maybe I just get tireder as I go ` I'm not sure. - Over the years, they've learnt the secrets to a successful horopito harvest. - We've gotta calibrate it quite carefully so we don't stress the plant. These things weren't designed to be harvested; in fact, they probably hate it. So that's one of the things that we've selected for, over the 35 years-odd that we've be doing it is plants that can actually stand to be repeatedly harvested. - It's very important that we go up and down the roads the same way each time, because as it's harvested, the bush tends to lean in the direction of harvest. So you get it wrong and you go the wrong way, uh, you soon know about it ` it just becomes impossible to push. (BIRDS CHIRP) - Back in the 1970s, Peter and his partner, Linley, paid $5000 for 90 acres of rainforest here. It didn't even have road access. - I would call us alternative lifestylers. We were just looking for cheap land anywhere in the country. 90 acres for 5 grand was probably the cheapest that was going, you know, especially beautiful bush like this. We persuaded another couple to go in with us. So they got their half of the land for 2.5 grand ` that was a real good deal. Yeah, when we first got here, it was all a bit of a shock to our system, cos we'd just been living in Auckland. So it was really damp, living in the bush. I mean, we shouldn't have been surprised ` it's 4m of rain, maybe 5m a year. So you just lived in gumboots a lot of the time. We hadn't really thought about how we were gonna make a living, which, you know, in retrospect seems quite foolhardy. Perhaps we were, like, type A hippies. I guess we had rosy tinted glasses, really, as to what it would be like to be in the country, that it would be peaceful and that, but we we're not peaceful, sort of, people, you know ` we're anxious, motivated people. And that's why we've started businesses, and we've pushed them quite hard. - The couple did all sorts to make ends meet ` gold mining, building the nearby Kaituna Track, and they tried growing subtropical plants and organic kiwifruit. - We cleared a bit of land and grew a whole field of pepino. So for one year, uh, I was the pepino king of the South Island. What we did notice was there was horopito growing wild around here. - Maori have long used horopito as a painkiller. So Peter did some research and found a Canterbury University study that showed the peppery native had antifungal qualities. - The actives that are in the leaf have been able to withstand dinosaurs grazing. Given that it grows in high-rainfall areas, it's been able to resist all the fungi and the moulds that have attacked it over millennia, and that's what we find really valuable. What's really interesting, with a leaf like this, is you can see where an insect's attacked it. Here is the antioxidant response ` it's sort of like an immune response that we might have if we get an illness. It's those qualities that this plant's got that we extract and put into products. - Harvesting the horopito is the first step ` then they need to extract the active ingredients. - Looks like you got quite a good load. - Oh, not too bad. - Di Potter's here to help get the horopito into the drier. (LEAVES RUSTLE) - The leaves, they've got various attributes, but the one that we've zeroed in on is the anti-yeast, anti-thrush, anti-candida activity. - Over the years, they've trialled various extraction techniques. - The drying and the storage and the extraction has been a whole nother journey. Been a hell of a lot of mistakes along the way. The active is a really difficult molecule to stabilise. It just wants to disappear, so it's been a big learning curve. We had big technology grant with Callahan, some $400,000, of which we paid half, to work out extraction and stability technologies. After harvesting, the leaf goes into the dryer and gets dried for several days at a critical temperature. - And while the horopito plantation is a relatively small employer, Peter's other business is one of the largest in Golden Bay. - The whole family is involved in the natural health business. Oh, Henry, my show's about to start. Henry. (GRUNTS) VOICE-OVER: Imagine if instead of the dog dragging you out the door... (SCREAMS) ..you dragged it. Get AIA Vitality and start thriving. (PEACEFUL MUSIC) We're heading into HealthPost our family business, which is located just on the outskirts of Collingwood. - It's a 15-minute drive from Peter Butler's Golden Bay Horopito farm to the small town of Collingwood. - Collingwood's a lovely place when the weather's good. It's quite a quirky wee place. It's definitely got a lot of character. - In the late 1850s, when gold was discovered in Mohua ` Golden Bay, it was suggested Collingwood could be the capital of New Zealand. The idea didn't catch on, and these days, the population is around 300. The Butler family business is the biggest employer. - HealthPost probably employs about half the people in town that work. It was a three-person business for a long time, and now, I think, we've got 70-odd working here and about 20 specialists up in Auckland. - Peter's ex-wife, Linley, started HealthPost. - Hi, darl. How's it going? - How's it going? Good. - Daughter Lucy is now in charge of sustainability, and son Abel is Chief Executive. - And this is all incoming, is it? - Yeah. Quite a little bit. - Holy moley. - Yeah. I think we're New Zealand's leading online natural health products retailer. We do anything between, sort of, 1000 and 2000 individual customer orders each day, all round New Zealand. The guys here are filling orders for our customers. We order in wholesale, mostly from New Zealand suppliers, bring it all into the warehouse here in Collingwood, and then send it back out in individual customer orders. Mum started it in the late 1980s. She was ordering large amounts of natural health products for herself, and she wanted to be able to access those a bit more affordably. So she actually started buying in bulk from suppliers, and then distributing that out among friends and family. (MACHINE BEEPS) - Mum really, sort of, keyed into a need and niche there, and the business just grew through that word of mouth for so long, and then, with the advent of the internet, and things just absolutely boomed. - Peter bought HealthPost from Linley, and when Abel came onboard, he changed it from a mail-order catalogue business to an online retailer. They've recently purchased two new Australian businesses. - Abel and Lucy have done an amazing job with the business. - Peter's horopito range is among thousands of products that leave the warehouse every day. it's sold under the brand name Kolorex. - So we've got about 10 products; we've got foot and toe cream here for athlete's foot. We've got candida balance for gut care, we've got a wash product, and we did some research that showed that the horopito extract was actually really good for cold sores, did that at Otago University, so we have a cool little product called Triple Action Lip Ointment. (BEEPING) - We've got about 2500 coming out today. - Zoe Frost from NZ Post is on deadline. - These will go way from Collingwood all the way to Nelson. They'll get resorted, put on a truck and sent down to Christchurch, where they'll go on planes tonight. - All those comings and goings means HealthPost is very aware of its carbon footprint. - So, we've got solar panels on the roof, providing about a third of our power. We're zero-carbon certified with ECOS, and we offset our carbon using, uh, only native New Zealand forest credits. And we've actually got our own carbon farm just up the road. - Back at the horopito farm, they're expanding too ` Peter's planting another 6 hectares, with the help of Di Potter. - They're incredibly slow-growing. They're like the tuatara of the plant world. I've never known a plant that dies so quickly in a drought either ` hence this rainforest is a really good place to be growing them. So this is a pretty cool little Finnish planting device that I tracked down. So, you don't have to bend over. You push it in, and that opens up the duck beak. So it's gone doonk like that,... and pop that down,... lift it out, and then just secure the dirt around the root of this moisture-loving plant. And on to the next one. It all, sort of, works, more or less, although, after 35 years, I am still learning ` probably killed as many horopito plants as I've planted. Di's gonna come through with the protectors ` it might look a bit weedy, but we don't really like to use Roundup here unless we really have to. - We put the mats around to, sort of, stop the weeds and protection. When they're little like this, they don't like the frost much. - Peter's always experimenting with ways to grow horopito. - Normally you wouldn't see horopito growing out in the open, like this ` you'd find 'em under a forest canopy. So what we've gotta try and do is recreate a, sort of, microclimate that suits them, and the manuka kanuka is my latest attempt to do that. (METAL CLANGS) - Back at the drier, it's time to mill the horopito leaves that have been drying for the last five days. - Essentially we're milling it, so that it can be stored economically, and also so that it can be processed. This is a fairly rudimentary, sort of, outdoorsy milling process ` when it actually gets extracted, it's all sterilised in the extraction process. So we end up with a sort of a... it's called an olio resin, so it's, sort of, a cross between a wax and an essential oil, and that's the basis for all of our products. This polygonal is a devil to try and keep ` it just wants to react with everything. And that's part of why it's so effective against candida and stuff ` it's a very reactive active. - The extraction process happens off-site, once they have enough for it to be commercially viable. So this load is heading for a storage facility in Nelson, where it will be kept in a way that it retains its active properties. (TINKLY MUSIC) About 45 minutes' drive from Peter Butler's Monua ` Golden Bay horopito plantation, at the base of Onetahua ` Farewell Spit is another of his passions; the Wharariki Ecosanctuary. - This is the northernmost point of the South Island. It's a privilege to be able to work here. - HealthPost has formed a partnership with local iwi organisation Manawhenua ki Mohua and the Department of Conservation to protect the sanctuary as part of the HealthPost Nature Trust. - There's a huge degree of trust and respect, right through the partnership. It's a wonderful relationship. - We're gonna bless the rakau that you're going to be planting, and I just wanna thank you very much. Inoi tatou ` let us pray. Homai o nga tupuna, homai e te atua... - This morning, community volunteers are here to prepare the site for a HealthPost planting bee. It's an opportunity for Archdeacon Harvey Ruru, Margie Little and Makaere Chapman from Manawhenua ki Mohua to acknowledge the mahi. - ...wairua tapu. Ake, ake. Amine. (ALL SING WAIATA) This place is known as Onetahua. - Ki te ao, ki te po, ki te rangimarie. It's a really significant area to Manawhenua ki Mohua, Ngati Tama, Te Atiawa and Ngati Rarua. It's significant for the blue whale population that live out in the moana. We've always been part of this place. (ALL SING WAIATA) - Onetahua means piled-up sand in te reo Maori. This spot at the base of Farewell Spit is a very spiritual part of the rohe. - This is Te Rerenga Wairua, which is Cape Farewell, which is where the spirits for Te-Ika-a-Maui, for Te Waipounamu head off on their journey. This is like Cape Reinga is to the North Island, Rerenga Wairua here is to Waipounamu. - HealthPost Nature Trust has spent years planning, planting, trapping and fencing in the eco sanctuary. In 2020, a 3-hectare predator-proof fence was completed, to provide a safe haven for native plants and animals. - Hey, Marian. - Hey, Pete. - How are ya? - Yeah, good. - Marian Milne is the project co-ordinator. - Shall we go and have a look at the colony? - Yeah, sure. - Cool. - This sanctuary within a sanctuary is providing extra protection for pakaha, or fluttering shearwater. 106 birds have been translocated here in the last 18 months, and it's hoped they'll return to what's expected to become a rare mainland breeding colony. - They're out in the Tasman Sea, they're a coastal bird, but a lot of the juveniles will go straight across to the coast of Australia, and then they won't come back until they're ready to breed, at about 3 or 4 years old. - The sanctuary, it is proving to be really successful. I think that HealthPost are doing an amazing job, in relocating the manu and working with iwi to get the manu back. - Kia ora koutou, HealthPost whanau. Thank you all for coming out despite a week of rain. This is the fourth year, I think, that we've planted here. - HealthPost donates $100,000 to the Nature Trust every year. Today staff will plant a thousand natives in the sanctuary and nearby wetland. - We're truly a local business. I think everyone that lives here's quite connected to the natural environment, so it just kind of really makes sense, I think, for us to engage with it and be a part of restoring it as well. - I wish that more businesses around New Zealand, kind of, realise that, even at that small, medium level, there's an opportunity to actually have an impact and to trust that others will get on board and contribute. - It's been fantastic. I mean, it'll just grow from here. We're going to extend this fence, make it bigger, and bring in bigger and more endangered birds. So it's an exciting journey. - And Peter Butler's journey with native herbal products continues too. Back at Forest Herbs, he's putting another herbal hero under the microscope. - In the markets, there's always kawakawa cream, but the science hasn't been done, so I am working with an iwi incorporation to do a bunch of science and find out superior varieties. Each row is a different variety of kawakawa, so we're trying to work out what would be the best to grow as a sustainable crop and what sort of activities we're looking for that would have relevance to people that like taking plant medicine, really. What I'm doing here is I'm taking a 1cm-by-1.5cm slice out of the middle of a kawakawa leaf, and I'm putting it in preservative. It's pretty similar to what I did with horopito back in the day. It is gonna get sent down to a university, to have DNA testing. - But for now, Peter will continue to focus his energies on horopito. - Our mission statement to bring the benefits of Horopito to the world. I mean, I'm not religious about it ` I don't wake up in the middle of the night thinking, 'Oh damn. I haven't,' but, you know, it'd be, kind of, nice if it did get bigger, and not from a financial point of view, but more from a satisfaction point of view. We've learnt more or less how to grow, harvest and store it. And we've got some products coming from it. So, yeah, I see it as probably the beginning. I kind of think each country has got herbal products to contribute. Like, you might say Australia's got tea tree oil, or Switzerland's got arnica, and I see this plant as possibly New Zealand's contribution to the herbal compendium of the world. Captions by Faith Hamblyn. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2023.