I am a 76-year-old and live in Whakatane. I was born in London and immigrated to New Zealand 32 years ago to marry a beautiful, intelligent kiwi girl, Judy. We have two sons, Jack and Tim who both live and work in Wellington.

I studied agriculture in England, then, as a post-graduate student, studied plant pathology. I am a keen photographer and have had work published in books, magazines and film. I gained my ARPS in the category “Nature” in 1986 from the Royal Photographic Society in England.

Organics - In 1989 my wife Judy and I bought a 23 acre farm in the ranges that surround the Gisborne flats, 25 km away. Gisborne is an intensely farmed horticultural area, with a heavy burden of artificial pesticide sprays and inorganic fertilizer use. We wanted to be totally organic, so needed a place well away from all of these. We wanted to grow a range of different vegetables and fruit trees, so we were as self-sufficient as possible.

We had a blank canvas to work with, as our property was an ex- sheep and cattle farm with just grassed paddocks and no trees. It lay in the bottom of a wide, flat valley surrounded by an amphitheatre of sad, treeless hills.

The first thing we did was to make a large vegetable garden. We also wanted to put back to the land in our care, and to encourage wildlife back into our valley again. So, we planted hundreds of native trees along the banks of two small streams that crossed our land, and put in a small lake, surrounding it with even more native plants and trees.

Over the years we put in New Zealand’s smallest, commercial, organic vineyard and a grove of 600 trees olive trees. From these which we produced medal-winning chardonnay and olive oil. Both of these provided us with a small income.

For our own consumption, we grew every type of fruit and nut tree we could get our hands on. Including pecans; chestnuts; hazelnuts; English and Black walnuts. In our mixed fruit orchard we had several varieties of apples, pears, apricots, cherries, nashi, plums, peaches, nectarines, citrus, figs and more.

Both Judy and I worked off-farm too, as there wasn’t sufficient income from our farm to make a consistent living, especially when two children arrived!

Judy studied to become a primary school teacher, and, later, a winemaker. She got a job as a cider-maker in Gisborne, working there for 7 years. She became New Zealand’s top cider-maker, winning many trophies and medals for her ciders, including a pear cider that she developed. When we sold our farm and moved to Whakatane, she became a sought after as a cider consultant with long trips to the USA and Australia.

I worked as a research agronomist for a major food processor, Cedenco, in Gisborne. They bought crops from local growers, including squash, tomatoes, sweetcorn, peas, onions, kiwifruit and celery. They processed some of these into pastes or powder, generally for the Japanese market.

In this blog, I thought I would bring in some small pieces about organics that might be interesting to some.

Walking - I have always enjoyed long-distance walking, and before I came to New Zealand did many of the UK’s finest, including the South West Coastal Path; The Coast to Coast; South Downs Way; West Highland Way; Great Glen Way and the Pennine Way, to name just a few. In New Zealand, I have done the 5-day Whakatane River walk, and the Great Walk around Lake Waikaremoana 3 times.

I’d like to share some of my experiences of these beautiful walks, and hopefully encourage others to try them for themselves. Some are very easy (The 154 km West Highland Way) and some quite challenging (the 1014 km South West Coastal Path). They are all very different and absolutely wonderful. Don’t take my word for it, do them yourself!

I’d also like to share my own experiences with some of the gear I’ve used and a few tips I’ve found useful when taking on long walks.

That’s all for now folks. Happy walking.

Kia ora.

NOTE - All material on this blog are my own work and written by me. All photos and videos are also taken by me. As such, they are all Copyright. Thank you - ©Duncan Smith