One only needs to spend a few minutes in Storm Baynes-Ryan’s company to know she’s a woman of many passions. She’s also down to earth and easy to talk to, which goes a long way in her line of work.

The Gisborne-based farmer and physiotherapist runs a wellness service in her community and across the motu, a business that was born from the devastation that Cyclone Gabrielle wrought on her region in February 2023.

Baynes-Ryan grew up on a farm, but has been practising physiotherapy since 2002. After working full time for 15 years, she took a few years off to focus on her family. She eventually took up a job on a farm and enjoyed it so much that she decided to become a full-time farmer. 

Two years ago, she and her helicopter-pilot husband, Anthony “Ginge” Ryan, decided to purchase their first farm, a 63 hectare sheep and beef and finishing operation in Te Karaka, but it hasn’t been an easy journey.

Less than a year in, their farm and community were lashed by cyclone damage, leaving their land and livestock in a less than desirable condition.

“It was really, really disheartening. We hadn’t even been on the farm a year. It was just starting to look like we could do it properly and start to make a go of it, so when Gabrielle hit it was really disheartening.”

Their predominantly hill country farm experienced extensive damage to their land and fences, impacting their ability to properly graze their livestock, which resulted in a 30% mortality rate during lambing.

“We weren’t able to feed them how we wanted and because of where we had to lamb them because the flats were sodden, [so] we had to lamb them on the hill and they weren’t strong enough. It was heartbreaking. And then we’d go out to feed, to fix fences and we’d look at the weather report and think ‘Why are we even bothering to do this? There is just no point,’” she said.

Despite receiving initial support to rebuild tracks and fences after the cyclone, heavy rain and flooding in June 2023 washed away all the repairs, leaving additional damage in its wake. All while the farm faced increasing interest rates on top of lost productivity.

“We stretched ourselves to buy it knowing that the interest rate would never go above 7% – and we are far, far, far above that now,” she said.

“We still haven’t fixed some fences. The tracks were fixed immediately afterwards. We had someone come and donate his time. He did about 10, which was between 80 and 100 hours on his digger as a volunteer job and he fixed all our tracks. Three weeks later there was the June rain event and all of that work he did got washed away … now we can’t find the money to pay for these tracks to be repaired.”

Juggling rebuilding their farming operation, her children’s extramural activities and working two days in town and two in Te Keraka, the mum of four also runs an online and face-to-face physiotherapy business, providing a much-needed service to her local and wider farming community. 

She provides personalised consultations that focuses on common farm-related ailments, such as aches, sprains and the odd on-farm injury. 

“Our social life is very much associated with kids playing sport. So we are part of the Surf Life Saving Club. The kids play netball, rugby, gymnastics and shooting. So that’s where all our spare time goes, getting them into sport. Yeah, so we don’t get much social life.”

She also runs a successful Instagram page, That Farming Physio, where her 1300-plus followers receive regular tips and exercise routines to help them stay farm-fit.

“Originally it was just to document what I was doing. I was farming up north and it was just beautiful and I loved it. And I thought, let’s just share this. And then when I moved away, I had two really good friends and I thought, I’m just going to show them. I’m just videoing. I’m just putting up Instagram for my two best friends who I miss so much, to show them what I’m doing because I’m not going to be in touch with them every day,” she said. 

“And then I thought, what if I could provide a service to people who find it hard to get health care?”

Baynes-Ryan wanted to make something really specific just for farmers to “help some people who I feel are marginalised, who are important to the country and who I want to be empowered”. 

“I haven’t grown virally and I don’t want to specifically because I want the people on my farming physio page to be the people who want to be there. I don’t want them there because of one video I’ve done. I want them to be there because they know that they’re going to get some straight-talking physio advice focused on farmers, rural people, remote folk.”

She said a lot of what she does is to support communities that would otherwise not have immediate access to these services or have to travel great distances to see a specialist. She also works closely with other medical practitioners, to ensure that her clients will receive the necessary support and care if they need to be referred.

“When I see my clients online we do Zooms, and sometimes the camera’s moving all over the place and we’re giggling and I’m trying to see their feet and I’m kind of pointing and they can’t see me. It’s hilarious and it doesn’t have to be serious. You can still do a great job and have a sense of humour,” she said.

One of the most common ailments she deals with is lower back strain and pain. Many of these things can be mitigated through simple lifestyle changes, she said. 

“I see people with grumpy backs and hips. So on most joints, to be fair, necks, shoulders, backs, hips, knees and ankles, they are the big ones. And then other little things like people with wrist injuries. If they’ve got hand and wrist injuries, I’ll probably send them to a hand therapist because they’ve got postgraduate training specifically on the hand and wrist,” she said.

“I can charge ACC and create ACC claims, but I can’t do medical certificates. I can also send off referrals for X-rays, ultrasounds and to specialists.

Baynes-Ryan said oftentimes on-farm injuries like back pain occur because “we’re not moving well and we get into movement patterns where the back is loaded more than it should be”. 

One service she offers to ease this common issue is a no-cost Manage Your Grumpy Back mini programme, designed to prevent injury and support recovery.

She also has a weekly newsletter that provides wellness tips and exercise routines to decrease the risk of injury or to aid recovery and will be launching a website soon.

Many of her clients are women, she said. “I’m not sure if it’s because they’re more in tune with their bodies or more inclined to seek assistance when required, but there’s definitely a trend that leans more to women seeking wellbeing support.”

She said it’s equally important for men to get the necessary care as the long-term benefits far outweigh any inconvenience in making the time. 

She said a well-balanced life can easily be achieved by simply being average, and by this she means doing even just the bare minimum to ensure that you’re not only fit on farm but long after retiring as well.

“Whether it’s making healthy meal choices, like incorporating more protein into your diet, doing stretches, doing strength training, or simply reaching your daily step target, all of these things goes a long way in ensuring wellbeing and longevity,” she said.

“My ultimate inspiration is that farmers get to retire from their jobs, not because they can’t get on their horse anymore or can’t get on the bike anymore or can’t walk around the hill anymore because they are so stiff, sore, weak or whatever – that they retire because they want to and are capable of getting out.”

You can check out Baynes-Ryan’s Instagram page here.

More: The Farmers Weekly Rural Living series highlights the rich diversity of Aotearoa New Zealand’s rural communities, farming families and contributions to the food and fibre sector.

Incorporating old newspapers into decor might not be the first thing that comes to mind when planning a wedding, but for a British-born gal and her Kiwi beau it was a fitting ode to their home countries and farming backgrounds. 

Jess and Rob Lourie, who wed late last year, used Farmers Weekly New Zealand and Farmers Weekly United Kingdom newspapers as confetti cones at their wedding as representation of two worlds coming together as one.

“As I am from the UK and Rob is a Kiwi, we wanted lots of little nods towards the two countries and this seemed like a great idea. As we are both from farming families, we have grown up with the respective Farmers Weekly on our kitchen tables so it seemed fitting to use them both for our confetti cones,” Jess said. 

Jess, who works as business development manager for PGG Wrightson’s Go-Stock division, enlisted her parents’ help to get copies of the Farmers Weekly UK newspaper to be used alongside the NZ version.

“My mum and dad are still farming over there so they collected them for us and brought them out when they arrived for the wedding.”

They managed to collect enough newspapers for about 50 cones, with the rest of the guests “just grabbing a handful” of petals. Jess said the cones were a hit with guests, many of whom had not known there was a UK version of the farming newspaper.

Rob’s mother also played an important part in the couple’s union, having invited Jess for dinner when she first moved to NZ from the UK.

“I came out to NZ from the UK to work on a 8000-acre [3237ha] sheep, beef and dairy farm and it just so happened to be next door to where Rob and his family were farming. His mum actually invited me over for dinner one evening and that’s how we first met.”

Fast-forward to 2022, and after four years of courtship Rob, who works alongside his parents on the beef and sheep farm in West Waikato, was ready to pop the question.  Jess recalls the moment as “romantic” and “amazing”.

“I was flying back to the UK in April 2022 for the first time after covid [lockdowns] to see my family, and the week before I was leaving, Rob tried to propose but the weather wasn’t playing ball. But finally on my last night before my trip, he managed to get me out to our favourite spot on the farm where we often sit enjoying a beer, looking for deer. We usually have a competition of who can spot the first deer and so Rob handed me the binoculars to scan the clearing – it took a few minutes for me to finally spot ‘Will you marry me?’ which had been placed out using battens in the clearing. When I turned around Rob was down on one knee – it was amazing! And he had also hidden away a bottle of champagne so we drank that instead of the usual beer!”

Sticking with the farming theme, the pair were married on November 18 at Ōrere Point, east of Auckland, on the farm that Rob’s brother and wife lease.

Jess said they turned to Pinterest boards to help plan their wedding, and thinking outside the box was key to bringing it all together.

“I used Pinterest for lots of inspiration but most of it wasn’t rurally related so I just had to think a little bit differently about how we could tie it into what we are both passionate about.”

While no one donned gumboots for the big day despite the “typically British weather”, small nods to farming were evident in every aspect of the decor.

“Our seating plan was made up out of old totara posts that we found on the farm and we named all the tables after agri-related things that are called different things in each of our respective countries,” she said.

“For example, truck/lorry, gumboots/wellies etcetera. We used things we had on the farm – like an old pallet we stained and wrote the timeline of the day on it and we found an old piece of driftwood on the beach which we made a swing out of. 

“We were also supposed to leave the wedding ceremony in an old Hilux flat deck ute, which we had decorated with ribbon and cans tied to the back, and we were going to sit up on the back on two chairs, but unfortunately the weather was so bad we couldn’t use it.”

Unable to pinpoint the highlight of the day because everything was pretty much “a blur”, Jess says the speeches were heartfelt.

“I really couldn’t pick one moment … It goes so fast but it was just amazing for me to have all our special people from both sides of the world there. We had 27 people travel from England to be here, which was just incredible.” 

In an age when women are still fighting for gender equality, more and more women are stepping into the light to ensure that women from all walks of life have a voice and a platform for representation to tell their stories on their own terms.

Shepherdess publisher and editor-in-chief Kristy McGregor and her team are among those women, working in the trenches to ensure that the stories of women in rural New Zealand are told and shared far and wide. It’s the stories they share in print, the community they create through their events and more recently, pulling the curtain back on the lives of rural wāhine with their TV show, Shepherdess.

Speaking to Farmers Weekly ahead of the show’s premiere in October, McGregor said: “Women in provincial Aotearoa are incredibly resourceful, talented and have many stories to share. At the heart of what we set out to do was not just show the role women play at work, but see women for their whole selves, leaning into the rhythms and routines of their life on the land as we unravel their personal thoughts and experiences.”

Fast-forward to a fully aired season later, and McGregor and her team have achieved just that. She says the response to the show has been overwhelmingly positive.

“I’m honestly so heartened by the response. So many women have written to us and  commented on the diversity of life stories, the range of ages and the remote places. 

“As well as the response on socials [media]; women have been writing messages to us … so moved by the honest representation of rural life.

“One woman wrote: ‘How I love your show. I cry every week, the honesty that each woman shares her story with moves me so deeply. Their words stay with me long after watching the episode.’” 

McGregor says she believes the show resonates with viewers because it is real and honest – it isn’t a glossy picture of rural life, it speaks about the struggles too. 

“In one episode, a woman spoke about her long commute to town school for the kids and her work because there just aren’t services on their isolated part of the coast, and that’s something that women watching were really able to connect with.

“I think it’s been quite an emotional watch for some people because they see their own stories represented. Some women have written about how much they have struggled with isolation, others about how they have struggled to adapt to settling down and finding a sense of community after living away. They’ve said the show has given them the courage to be patient with themselves and to find a community.

“I think it just goes to show that there is a need for stories that are real and candid, that share the ups and downs of rural life.” 

Episode One – Tokanui from Shepherdess on Vimeo.

McGregor is keen to sink her teeth into a second season and encourages viewers to “watch this space”.

Meanwhile, there’s lots more cooking in the Shepherdess kitchen for Kiwi women looking to unwind or explore a sense of community, starting with The Shepherdess Muster, which takes place in the small village of Motu, Tairāwhiti, from February 16 to 18.

“I think we all need a chance to come together after the year that it’s been, especially folks on the east coast of the North Island who have been hit hard by the weather events. “The weekend is about just getting off the farm, coming together with friends – or with friends you haven’t met yet – having a laugh, learning something new, and taking a moment for yourself.”

More: Episodes 1-6 of Season 1 of the Shepherdess TV show are available to stream for free on Sky Go. Neon subscribers are also able to view the show on the pay-to-stream platform.

Shepherdess has ventured from print to television in a new project that celebrates rural women.

The wheels were set in motion nearly two years ago, with the fruits of the female-led production team’s efforts coming to life as a six-episode TV series, Shepherdess, premiering on October 22 on Sky Open.

The show celebrates eighteen different rural women living in provincial Aotearoa from all walks of life –  and all at varying stages in their lives.

Described as “a beautiful, heartwarming series” that’s far from just a stereotypical view of rural women as farmers’ wives”, it showcases the depth of the lives of the women in provincial Aotearoa.

Shepherdess publisher and editor-in-chief Kristy McGregor, who is also executive producer of the show, says her team was approached by Sky, “who recognised there was a space to share stories of rural life with a female lens”.

“Four years ago we created the magazine – which tells these beautiful stories in print through raw, authentic photography, and words, many written by the women in their own voice – and so it was a natural progression to take this way of storytelling but to a new format, television, which can have an even greater reach,” McGregor said.

“Women in provincial Aotearoa are incredibly resourceful, talented, and have many stories to share. At the heart of what we set out to do was not just show the role women play at work, but see women for their whole selves, leaning into the rhythms and routines of their life on the land, as we unravel their personal thoughts and experiences.” 

The show, which runs as six half-hour episodes, each featuring three rural women, is a product of collaboration at grassroots level.

“We collaborated with experienced film producer Nadia Maxwell, who is based in North Canterbury and brings incredible experience and eye in the film industry,” she said.

“With television, there’s quite a process you work through – pre-production where we researched the areas that we were going to film, including talking with locals, community organisations, volunteer groups, and anyone we knew in the areas that might be able to offer an insight into women who lived in the area.”

The crew spent a week in each town or village, filming with the women.

“Over the course of a week you get to know the women and what’s important to them, where they have come from, how they landed here, and their hopes and dreams.

McGregor says another “beautiful” aspect of the production process was the crew and bringing a strong female presence to a male-dominated industry.

“One of the most beautiful things about the production is our female-led crew. With the exception of a few Directors of Photography, we had an all female crew out on the ground – and for a male-dominated screen industry, that was incredible.”

The series is also led by the women, so viewers will hear  their stories and insights in their own words, leaning into moments that matter and exploring issues and themes that resonate with people across Aotearoa.

“Down back roads, in the small towns and villages, there’s amazing women with stories to share. We really followed an approach of every woman had a story to tell – and you didn’t have to have just climbed Mount Everest or won the Mayor’s award – we were looking for real women who were just going about their everyday [lives]. Ordinary women with extraordinary stories,” McGregor said.

Hanna McOwan, who directed three episodes, described the show as “wholesome” and “visually beautiful – both in the immense beauty of the landscape and the cinematography”.

“I hope the show will offer an interesting insight into the special and incredibly important role many women play in these small rural communities. Many of them are the backbone of the community, keeping these towns alive and thriving in so many different ways,” she said.

More: Tune into Sky Open this Sunday at 7.30pm to watch episode one, featuring three powerful women from the tiny town of Tokanui.

Hot on the heels of political parties in New Zealand hitting the election trail, Groundswell has announced plans for a protest from Invercargill to Auckland.

The farming group that was founded to “stand up against unworkable regulations” said its Drive 4 Change countrywide tour in late September is “to raise awareness and mobilise voters” ahead of the October 14 general election. 

“Our message is: things are bad, you need to vote, and you need to vote for change,” it says on its website.

Groundswell co-founders Bryce McKenzie and Laurie Paterson will mount their tractors in Invercargill’s Lorneville saleyards at 9am on September 22 to travel to Auckland, where they will finish with a speaking event at the Ellerslie Racecourse at 1pm on October 1.

The pair led the Howl of a Protest journey in July 2021, opposing the government’s agricultural regulations and policies, followed by another nationwide event, the Mother of All Protests, in November that year.

The group says police are aware of its plans and that “the idea is not to be disruptive  … We will be considerate to traffic. We’ve always taken that attitude and we haven’t changed.   

“Whether you can join the whole trek or just for a short time, we hope to see you in your tractor, ute, truck, car, pushbike or horse.”  

Converting a diesel tractor into an electric one sounds like no easy feat, but for one Waikato-based tinkerer it was an exciting prospect and one he had accomplished before – albeit on a smaller scale.

Dougal Mair, who works as a networks and cyber security teams manager at Waikato University, previously converted a moped into an e-scooter to reduce his carbon footprint commuting to work.

“We live close enough to my work at the University of Waikato that I always thought I shouldn’t really be using a car every day to go to and from work, so I thought about an electric bike. That gave me the idea for an electric scooter,” he says.

Rather than buying one, he put his radio, electronics and computer engineering skills to work and converted an old retro petrol scooter into an e-bike using technology that was in his “wheelhouse”.

After successfully building his eco-friendly ride to work, Mair was ready for his next project. He considered building an electric car, but the regulatory requirements seemed too onerous, so he settled on converting a tractor to use on his lifestyle block, and set about doing the necessary work to get the ball rolling.

Mair started researching the tractor project around mid-2021 and decided it was doable before setting out to find the perfect tractor for his new project.

“At the time I saw that Mike Casey [a Cromwell-based orchardist who had recently imported the electric orchard tractor from the United States] had converted a small Iseki tractor, and a couple of others had done Fergie tractors overseas … I settled on a David Brown.”

Mair says apart from the David Brown being similar in size and power to the Fergie 135 he was using at the time, it was reasonably priced and also served the project’s purpose well.

“The older David Browns have a full frame connecting the front and back, but I also worked out that the David Brown 880’s engine sump frame could be left in place with the engine removed too.”

Fast-forward to February 2022, and Mair found a suitable DB880 “a guy had sitting behind a shed” and went to work with the help of his father-in-law Jack Brinkman, a retired design engineer. 

“The first thing was to get rid of the diesel engine and see what I was left with,” Mair says.

He sourced parts for the build from China, either direct from the manufacturer or via AliExpress.

“One of the motors and controllers and the battery pack I sourced from NZ suppliers. Basically I was in no hurry to get the project completed, so I tried to source most parts via the most cost-effective way.”

The tractor, which is now functional but still a “work in progress”, has cost Mair just shy of $25,000 to get up and running. 

“I actually spent a bit more than $20,000 for this project ($24.5k including tractor cost of $2600), as I bought six Deep Cycle 12V batteries and cables for testing and I bought an extra motor controller that I didn’t need when I increased the voltage from 48V to 72V. 

“Someone doing the same conversion following my design and with similar electrical components would easily stay within $20k – cheaper if they already have an old tractor to convert and they watch the exchange rate. I bought stuff while the New Zealand-US dollar exchange rate was below 0.6, which wasn’t flash.”

In September 2022 the newly converted e-tractor stretched its legs for the first time. So far 58-year-old Mair, who was raised on a dairy farm, has been using the e-tractor for small jobs on his 4ha block, which he uses to graze horses for his wife, who rides dressage, plus the cattle they have “to eat the grass the fussy horses won’t”.

“I won’t be using the tractor all that often. On average, a couple of times a month – more in summer and less in winter.”

In hindsight, while there aren’t many things he would do differently, Mair admits it was a challenge even for him at times, but not “beyond my practical skills”. 

He also wouldn’t be keen to do a similar project for someone else because “these projects wouldn’t be cheap if you are paying someone for their time”, but he is open to consulting. 

“I think most people who know a bit about tractors and general engineering would be okay with the mechanical engineering bits, but some knowledge of electrical/electronics is also required.”

Beyond the technical know-how, he says that embarking on a project such as this requires a lot of safety precautions as well.

“A lot of care is required, as you’re dealing with large amounts of power (low voltage, but high amps). Making a mistake and shorting something will melt your screwdrivers and spanners, and could also easily start a fire. Frying some of your expensive electric components is always a concern too.”

Mair also documented the entire project on his blog, along with photos and videos on the work he’s done during the conversion process.

As for other projects in the pipeline, Mair says for now he’s focused on doing the final tweaks to the e-tractor, including getting a matching three-rib front tyre, but does have “a related side project on the boil”.

More: To check out Mair’s e-tractor and previous projects, visit his blog here.

Matariki is an age-old Māori celebration that was widely observed until the late 1940s before it essentially fell off the mainstream calendar.

It gained traction again in the early 2000s when it became more common for both Māori and Pākehā to celebrate it. In 2022 it became an official public holiday in New Zealand, on a Friday in June or July each year.

But what is Matariki and how is it relevant to farming?

Last year we covered Farming to Maramataka, the Māori Calendar. 

Speaking to Farmers Weekly at the time, author and Massey University Professor in Ethnobotany, Horticulture and Māori Resource and Environmental Management Nick Rāhiri Roskruge (Ātiawa, Ngāti Tama-ariki) described Matariki as “a celebration of the new year through the recognition of the star constellation as a tohu (to mark) of that period. It recognises the māra kai activity, which should mostly be resting at that time and preparation for the future growing season is being thought out.”

Matariki also represents the cycles of life and death.

Tohunga kōkōrangi (astronomy experts) would watch for the rise of Matariki just before dawn, and carefully study the appearance of each star. These observations were used to predict aspects of the coming year, such as the weather and the likelihood of a good harvest – much like Kiwi farmers today keep an eye to the sky to help plan day-to-day operations, and are reliant on the weather for a good season.

Traditionally, Matariki happened at the end of harvesting so there was an abundant supply of food for feasting. People rejoiced, sang and danced to celebrate the change of season and new beginnings. It was also a time for planning for the year ahead.

Modern-day farmers can still use these longstanding traditions as a tool to plan their next season – whether it be calving, sowing or harvesting – or to simply take the time to reflect on some of the challenges they’re facing, the ones they’ve already overcome and what their farming journey might hold over the next 12 months, especially from a kaitiakitanga (caring for the environment) perspective.

When NZ observed its first Matariki public holiday in 2022, Beef +Lamb NZ’s Māori agribusiness adviser, Charles Taituha, said Matariki is a celebration of people, culture, language, spirituality, history and most importantly a connection to te taiao (the environment).

“Matariki is a special time of our lunar calendar that gives us space and time to remember our journey so far, the ups and downs as well as connecting to our taiao … It’s important to recognise the cultural connection to our sector.”

A 2021 Our Land and Water National Science Challenge study also highlighted multiple examples of how kaitiakitanga has benefited agri-food enterprises, with Māori enterprises being a significant part of NZ’s primary sector. The 2021 report revealed that Māori own $13 billion in primary sector assets, including 30% of all beef and lamb production, and Māori horticulture has grown 300% in 12 years. These enterprises are guided by indigenous values of environmental stewardship, social responsibility, intergenerational wealth creation and cultural revitalisation.

Most of NZ’s farmers already follow these practices as well, and many more will be looking to the heavens to help see them through the next season with changing regulations, rising costs and unfavourable weather conditions. Matariki might just be the perfect opportunity to take stock of how far farmers – and the industry as whole – have come in the past 12 months.

“It is a time for whānau and friends to come together to reflect on the past 12 months and look towards the year ahead,” Taituha said.

Confronted with the challenges thrown up by changing farming policies, a Taupō couple looked for ways to diversify – and ended up raising a glass to their own on-farm craft brewery.

Since branching out into brewing beer James and Elissa Cooper haven’t looked back –  and this year their pilsner was named Supreme Champion at the 2023 New World Beer & Cider Award.

But where did the journey start?

Back in 2009, the Coopers were a young couple who enjoyed drinking beer but had absolutely no idea how to make it. Elissa worked as a veterinarian in a local practice and James had taken on a lease block and was farming sheep and cattle. 

There was a lot of change happening in the rural landscape at the time. Environment Waikato had found the freshwater quality of Lake Taupō was under threat and the amount of nitrogen reaching the lake from farmland and urban areas needed to be reduced to slow the degradation of the water quality. This meant the number of livestock in the lake catchment was capped, as was the amount of nitrogen fertiliser that could be applied.

Keen to own land, James and Elissa had the opportunity to purchase 100ha. The piece of land they bought had a low nitrogen discharge allowance and their farming business – due to its size and the regulations – was marginal. It became evident after the first couple of years that they needed another income stream. 

Despite their lack of experience, brewing beer was an attractive option, and through trial and error, and a lot of dollars later, they finally brewed a batch that was “drinkable”. 

With renewed hopes, Elissa conjured up the name Lakeman and the couple tipped the last of their savings into developing the brand.

For the first few years they did all the brewing and bottling themselves. James said starting from scratch was not so simple and sticking to farming would have been a lot easier. 

However, the quality of the brew slowly but surely improved until it was saleable, and in 2013 they launched Lakeman Brewery Co.

Fast-forward to 2023, and the Primate Pilsner of a company started in a shed in the Tukairangi Valley came out tops in the highly competitive 2023 New World Beer & Cider Awards.

“It’s a huge achievement for the whole team. They are always working hard to perfect our beers and try new styles, so for one of our core and original beers to win such a massive award is pretty cool and a recognition that with hard work and consistency it’s all worth it,” Elissa said.

The competition’s chair of judges, Michael Donaldson, had high praise for the pilsner.

“Their Primate Pilsner is a pitch-perfect example of a New Zealand-style pilsner, with loads of bright citrus and the hint of dank herbal note on a clean, slightly sweet palate. It came out on top of a taste-off against some of the bigger beers in this competition because of the outstanding execution. This win is a great story of Kiwi can-do attitude. Despite their remote location, rural farm setting and small team, Lakeman has gone from beginner to absolute winner in just 10 years,” Donaldson said.

The judging panel blind-tasted more than 700 brews, sipping their way down to the top 100, then the top 30 and ultimately selecting the overall winner.

“To be judged the supreme beer out of around 700 of NZ’s best beers and ciders from some awesome and a lot bigger breweries is pretty epic, especially as we head in to celebrating our 10th anniversary later this year,” James said.

But their story is also one of sustainability.

Wherever possible, everything comes back to the farm first.

“Every time we do something we try and think about how it will minimise our impact on the environment. Not only have we reduced animal numbers and fertiliser on the farm for less impact on the waterways, but we’re also always taking other steps to be more sustainable.”

This same environment-first mindset extends to the brewery, where they are constantly considering options to reduce their environmental footprint.

“All our packaging is cardboard and we have recently changed to aluminium cans, which can be recycled again and again. Aluminium cans are also lighter than glass bottles and this reduces the overall weight of shipments, therefore reducing the emissions on the delivery of our stock nationally.”

All wastewater from the brewery containing the old hops and yeast is irrigated onto the surrounding paddocks.

“To see the business evolving and the small way we are having an impact on local people and the community by way of jobs is one of the most satisfying aspects of the business for me,” Elissa said.

“As we grow I am really mindful of the impact we are having on our home. We would like Lakeman to be inter-generational, whether it is with our family or someone else’s. We will only do that by looking after this place and the water resource.”

“We see sustainability as the bones of everything, as part of every aspect of business, environment, community and most importantly our family and future generations,” James added.

More: For the full list of winners, visit the New World website.

It’s not often one picks up a book and there’s a story that so many from different walks of life can relate to. But such is the case with Carly Thomas’s ‘Before We Forget’, a compilation of short stories told by a sometimes forgotten part of society that grew up in rural Manawatū and Rangitīkei. 

The book is an easy read, providing a platform for a generation born as early as 1922 and no later than the 1940s to immortalise their lives by sharing their stories with anyone who has the time to read it.

Thomas, a Cheltenham-based, award-winning journalist, says she was compelled to write the book after receiving news that Harold Weekes, who she interviewed while covering Feilding High School centenary celebrations, had died.

“It was Harold Weekes who inspired the book. I had gone out to interview him for the Feilding High School centenary celebrations as he was a past pupil. I spent an extraordinary morning with him as he told me many stories from his life – much more than I needed for this particular job, but I recorded it and listened intently all the same,” she says.

“He died a little while later and the realisation that I had something important sitting in my recorder hit me. That then prompted me to apply for Earle Creativity Trust funding to create a book of more stories from our rural elderly.”

After receiving funding, Thomas put out the call out for participants and suggestions “and it all just went from there”. 

Each story is told in the first person, providing captivating insights into each of the subjects’ adventure-filled lives during a time that was so different, yet so similar, to today’s age.

“I wanted a balance of cultures, genders and different life stories. The interviews were done in people’s homes over cups of tea. I spent many hours talking with the participants and made multiple visits,” she says.

There are tales of how ancestors came to be in New Zealand, or how roots were always here, and how many of them and their families worked the land, each playing a part – big or small – in the landscape we see today. 

“I think people’s stories are important at any time. Everybody’s stories, not just people who we deem to be important. They give us a true account of who we were, are and could be. What can we learn from each other? How can we feel connected? These things are important and recording everyday stories is a way of putting down what might otherwise be lost,” she says.

Thomas says it’s important to talk to the older generation.

“Spend time with them and listen. They still have something to say and they are often overlooked. It takes longer when interviewing older people, but it is well worth the time. I learnt to slow down and to not push. Slow down, sit back and listen.”

Spending hours with her subjects, hearing intricate details of their lives, left a lasting impression on Thomas as well.

“They all [left an impression] in their own way. I had a beautiful day with Makareta [Casey] travelling out to Rātana and then having cream cakes in Sanson. Dickie [Hammond] had me in hoots of laughter and Gordon [Collier] is always a lovely man to spend time with. Rob’s [Gordon] wife Hara made us a gorgeous lunch and was very supportive of this project, as was Joy’s [Corbett] family. Visiting Uru’s [Te Urumanoa Eunice Kereti] little house in Taihape was neat and I am so glad I got to visit Ian [Jenson] at his much-loved home as he went into a rest home very soon after. 

“But honestly they were all memorable. Along the way I got to meet people’s families too, and that was a lovely bonus.”

Thomas does a wonderful job of enabling readers to take this journey with her, although she says she never had any aspirations other than to tell their stories for future generations.

“I had no expectations of how the book would be received as I was really doing the project as a record of lives lived. But people have enjoyed it, which has been wonderful,” she says. 

“To know that people have found it interesting and connecting is affirming and heartwarming. I didn’t advertise the book at all but the first 200 copies sold quickly. I am currently doing a reprint.

She says she would love to tell more stories from different regions across the country should “time and funding allow”.

“The funding I received made the book possible. The [Earle Creativity] trust has funded so many amazing projects over the years and I appreciate their commitment to literature and the arts. [It’s] such an incredible local funding body! I was lucky enough to meet both Dick and Mary Earle – wonderful, generous people, [although] Mary has passed now.”

Thomas also shared that Weekes isn’t the only person featured in the book who has passed on.

“Joy died last year, I read her chapter at her funeral at the family’s request [and] Ian Jensen died just after Christmas last year [as well]. I had visited him to give him a book on Christmas Eve. I am so glad I did, we had a lovely hour.”

While a potential ‘Before We Forget’ series is unconfirmed for now, Thomas has already started her next project.

“I’m working on a book with a rural slant and that has kept me busy for the last eighteen months. It’s exciting so watch this space! In between that I work as a freelance journalist for various publications.”

‘Before We Forget – Stories from rural Manawatū and Rangitīkei’ is available for purchase from Bruce McKenzie Booksellers in Palmerston North and Paper Plus in Feilding and Palmerston North. Currently, there are only a few of the books on the shelves until the reprint top-up, which is due in the next few weeks. All profits go towards publishing more copies, or will be donated to Arohanui Hospice.

There’s been a lot of chatter over whether the unprecedented amount of rainfall and subsequent flooding the upper North Island experienced in January is linked to climate change or the Tonga eruption last year.

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai (HT-HH) volcano eruption in January 2022 propelled a record-breaking amount of water vapour into the Earth’s stratosphere – enough to fill more than 58,000 Olympic-size swimming pools, according to research from NASA. 

Recent weather reports warn Aucklanders and other parts of the country – specifically areas that took a beating from Cyclone Hale – to batten down the hatches as it starts to look more likely that Cyclone Gabrielle will make landfall in New Zealand this week, bringing even worse conditions than Hale.

Cyclone Gabrielle, now a “severe category three storm”, is forecast to be one of the most serious storms to hit NZ this century, bringing up to 300mm of rain and 150km/h winds that could cause widespread damage to North Island regions. Large waves and a storm surge are expected to affect northern and eastern coastlines from Sunday. The Government issued a warning that people should “be prepared” and stock at least three days’ worth of supplies, including medication, water and food.

So is the wild and wet weather a result of the Tonga eruption? Experts say it’s unlikely, but also too early to tell.

Earlier this month, NIWA weighed in on the topic, saying: “We continue to see no direct, distinguishable linkage been [between] the eruption and tropospheric weather patterns. La Niña, a negative Indian Ocean Dipole and strongly positive Southern Annular Mode are the natural climatic factors that have driven our regional patterns in the last three months.”

WeatherWatch CEO and senior forecaster Philip Duncan agrees with NIWA.

“The Tonga eruption will likely have some influence on weather patterns but it may not be easy to spot it. It logically makes sense that what comes up must come back down, but it shouldn’t keep coming down,” Duncan said.

He says it’s likely there were localised immediate impacts to Tonga’s weather the day of the eruption (and weeks after it in parts of the South Pacific and Australia). But once the water and chemicals from that eruption were dispersed globally they thin out much more and it is much harder to then draw a direct conclusion to our weather pattern over a year later.

“La Niña has been the main driver for heavy rain in our part of the world so far this summer – and a marine heatwave in the NZ area added more heat. Unlike previous La Niña events, high pressure moved south giving the South Island the dry hot summer, but the North Island, tropics and eastern Australia had the classic wet summer, which was forecast from WeatherWatch/IBM and Australia’s BoM without any data from Tonga being included. 

Duncan says the pattern NZ is experiencing now is part of a normal La Niña set up, and with an even warmer climate and sea in the NZ area we’re seeing some much bigger rainfall totals in some of our flood events. 

As for whether the Tonga eruption is a small part of the equation, he says “I don’t see why not, but I don’t see it as the main ingredient”.

He says while there is no doubt that the eruption could have an impact on the climate, it may be years before there is enough data on the event to determine how it impacted the climate. Meantime, he doesn’t see any strong evidence that it’s changed our weather pattern in any noticeable way.

“I think if that was the case, you’d have NIWA and MetService scientists really bragging about it, as it would be fascinating to be able to link an underwater volcanic eruption to flooding or severe weather a year later. We would learn so much from that. The fact that isn’t the case so far, to me, highlights how little impact the Tonga eruption may have had on our weather in the big picture,” he said. 

“Either way it is a fascinating topic and until we know more there will be plenty of plausible well thought out theories, like [a recent] piece from Steve Wyn-Harris.”