Beyond the Edge Beyond the Bar: 13.22 Tauranga: Kiwifruit Country

22.A Kiwi360 Landmark Sign along State Route 2 near Te Puke

Tauranga is a city on New Zealand's Pacific coast, on the east side of the North Island. It's on that stretch of the coast called the Bay of Plenty. The bay got its name from the explorer Captain James Cook, discussed in an earlier post. Tauranga, New Zealand's sixth most populated urban area, is its busiest export port as measured by shipping volume. It is a rapidly growing urban center, reportedly popular with retirees from Great Britain. Jean and I decided to visit the city not with retirement in mind but with return in mind. Namely, if we were to return to New Zealand for more locum tenens service on behalf of a district health board, we were more likely to go to place where the demand for mental health specialists exceeded the supply. New Zealand has less difficulty in placing such specialists in the likes of Wellington and Queenstown--both 'hot' towns for Kiwis and international tourists alike--than with a place like Tauranga, which is largely unknown by international tourists.

During New Zealand's cruise tour season from October into April, Tauranga is a port of call for many cruise ships. For one thing, there are broad white-sand beaches in Tauranga. For another, Tauranga serves as a gateway to Rotorua, a big tourist draw (See post 13.06), and for tourists wanting to visit fruit-growing operations. The Bay of Plenty region is one of New Zealand's most significant fruit-growing areas. Indeed, about eighty percent of New Zealand's kiwifruit is grown in this area of the North Island.

After checking into our motel near Tauranga's CBD (or downtown) we headed for the spit of land that separates Tauranga Harbour from the open sea. This spit is somewhat like Miami Beach to Miami, serving as ground for numerous apartments, homes, motels, and vacation homes with ready access to a beautiful beach. This beach-side community, known as Mt Maunganui, indeed has a mount at its (western) head that bears confusingly two names: 'Maunganui' and 'Mauao'. The locals, sidestepping the confusion, simply call it 'the Mount'. Jean and I headed for the Mount in order to walk around it, as many locals and visitors do. There are also geo-thermally heated baths at the eastern foot of the mountain, a testament besides the Mount itself to what lies beneath. Photos 22.B thru J, below, are a visual record of our perambulation on the overcast day when we visited the Mount. Spectacular photos, no doubt, could be taken on sunny days.

Much of the Mount is covered in native vegetation, 'bush' as Kiwis might call it. But a strip of the eastern side is reserved as pasture for sheep. From what I was able to gather, a serious fire engulfed much of the Mount some time in the late 1990s, threatening the Mt Maunganui community. After the fire it was decided to maintain a firebreak on the community side of the Mount. So the sheep on the Mount are there primarily to maintain the firebreak.

The day following our walk around the Mount proved to be gloriously sunny. We decided to take advantage of the sunshine to visit a kiwifruit vineyard south of Tauranga, near the town of Te Puke. This vineyard and orchard, named 'Kiwi360', is a mecca for tourists wanting to visit a kiwifruit horticultural enterprise. The Tauranga area is a high-producing kiwifruit region because of four factors: the rich pumice (volcanic) soil, plenty of rainfall thru the year (about 1200 mm or 47 inches annually) fairly evenly distributed over the year, ample sunshine, and at least a few frosts (on average about twelve days annually). The frosts, apparently, are as critical for enabling the kiwifruit to flourish as are the other three factors.

About 6000 people are employed in the kiwifruit industry in the Tauranga growing area, including Te Puke. About 20,000 people are needed during the ten-week harvest season that begins in April and lasts into mid-June. Kiwi students and 'backpackers' are housed in the area to serve as harvesters. Even foreign workers are regularly imported to make up for what would otherwise be a shortfall of domestic workers willing to work the harvest. All the kiwifruit harvesting is done by hand. Sorting by size occurs in the packinghouses. Kiwifruit can be kept for long periods under refrigeration, which makes for a fruit that can be readily transported by road, rail, and sea. In other words, it doesn't have to be flown to foreign markets.

The kiwifruit, as is generally known, was developed by New Zealand growers in the Twentieth Century from the Chinese gooseberry, which in China wasn't regarded as fit for human consumption. New Zealand growers have developed three varieties, the least of which is a variety hardly bigger than a grape and isn't found in stores, at least not yet. The most popular variety, constituting seventy-five to eighty percent of New Zealand's kiwifruit production is the green or fuzzy kiwifruit. That's the kiwifruit most familiar to North Americans and indeed to anyone living outside New Zealand. The golden kiwifruit, which makes up the balance of commercial production in New Zealand, is grown only in New Zealand. We've purchased both the green and golden varieties in New Zealand and found we like the golden as much as the green. But apparently the golden variety hasn't been successfully nurtured elsewhere because of issues associated with resistance to or tolerance of certain kinds of plant bacterial infection. The five largest producers of kiwifruit worldwide are Italy, New Zealand, Chile, Greece, and France, in descending order.

Kiwi360 not only grows kiwifruit, it has vineyards and orchards supporting other fruit production, albeit not on any great scale. There are many kiwifruit vineyards in the Bay of Plenty and Kiwi360 is by no means among the largest. But apparently it has the biggest 'harvest' of visitors. Although Jean and I were the only ones taking the morning tour of the orchards and kiwifruit vineyards on the day of our visit, during the height of the cruise season (December thru February) as many as six tour buses can be parked in Kiwi360's vehicle park. A store and café help sustain the visitors and the enterprise.

When we departed from Kiwi360, rather than head back to Te Awamutu via Tauranga, we decided to travel via Lake Rotorua (to the southwest of Te Puke). We skirted the north shore of Lake Rotorua and eventually got onto NZ Route 1, just south of Tirau. I mention Tirau, whose population is less than 800, because it has now become a major stopping point on the Auckland/Wellington highway (Route 1). The town's renaissance began when one enterprising fellow opened an antique store. Others followed in his success in luring travelers out of their automobiles. The town is now populated with numerous clothing stores, art and collectibles galleries, and cafés. There would be some merit in contemplating the renaissance of Tirau (in contrast to the decline of, say, Taumarunui [See post 13.09]). I anticipate writing up to four additional posts in this blog before leaving New Zealand in July. One post may be devoted to New Zealand transport (and to places like Tirau). We'll see. In any event, except for my postscript, sufficient is this post for the day... and for the trip to Tauranga.

Warm regards,

Tim (& Jean)

PS. While in Tauranga we saw the British comedy thriller Gambit at the Rialto Theatre. The movie stars Colin Firth (as a London art curator), Cameron Diaz (as a Texas rodeo star), and Alan Rickman (as an all-around cad). Gambit is funny and we recommend it.

PPS. A subsequent blogpost, published in 2015, discussed the rise of the port of Tauranga in comparison with other New Zealand ports.

PPPS. In June 2016 reports surfaced of the discovery of a growing body of magma below the Bay of Plenty town of Matata, which is outside the active Taupo and Tongariro volcanic zones. Matata is southeast of Tauranga, on State Route 2 about forty-four kilometers beyond Te Puke.