Beyond the Edge Beyond the Bar

Thursday, June 13, 2013

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.

22.B Mt Maunganui Beach with 'Leisure Island' to the Left

22.C White Sand Beach Seen from Mt Maunganui

22.D Sheep Tending a Slope of Mt Maunganui

22.E Track (or Path) to Mt Maungnui's Summit

22.F Wave Action Against the Rocky Shore of Mt Maunganui

22.H More Wave Action

22.G Barely Discernible Bird Perched on a Rock & Mayor (Tuhua) Island in the Distance

22.I Track along Mt Maunganui's Harbourside

22.J Tauranga Harbour with Kaimai Range in the Distance

22.K A Gigantic Kiwi Statue at Kiwi360

22.L Various Fruit Trees at the Outset of the Kiwi360 Tour

22.M Avocado Tree

22.N Fledgling Golden Kiwifruit Vines

22.O Tour Guide & Ripe Kiwifruit

22.P Mature Kiwifruit Vineyard

22.Q Mature Green or Fuzzy Kiwifruit

22.R Anti-Frost Windmill Set Amidst a Windbreak

22.S Tree Windbreaks with a Packinghouse Beyond

22.T Wave Action Framed by Trees on Mt Maunganui, 6 June 2013

22.U Landmark Kiwi360 Sign Framed by Blue Sky, 7 June 2013

Thursday, June 6, 2013

13.21 Wellington: The Windy City Plus

21.A Water, Father, Boy on a Toy, All in a Wellington Winter's Day, 3 June 2013

Last weekend was the Queen’s Birthday weekend in New Zealand. The first Monday in June is observed in New Zealand and Great Britain (among other places) as the Queen’s Birthday. It is a holiday. Queen Elizabeth II was crowned on 2 June 1953. So this year happens to include the sixtieth anniversary of her coronation and the sixtieth occasion for observing her birthday as queen.

Jean and I chose to travel to Wellington this weekend not to participate in any of the observances. Anyway, there were no obvious observances other than closed businesses and shortened shopping hours. We simply wanted to see the capital.

We weren’t disappointed. We came by train and perhaps in a subsequent post I’ll expatiate on that journey in New Zealand. But today I’d like to simply provide a record of our initial impressions of the capital city.

If nothing else, Wellington is windy or usually so. Photo 21.B, below, depicts a sign we saw somewhere in Welly, I believe on Mt Victoria, which is in the city. The windiness is almost inevitable given the capital’s spot in the world. For one thing the latitude of the city puts it in the ‘Roaring Forties’, that belt of bluster that circles the Southern Hemisphere between 40 and 50 degrees latitude south. At this particular latitude only New Zealand, Tasmania, and the far tip of South America obstruct the wind blowing from west to east over the open waters of the seas. Little land impedes the Roaring Forties from being a relentless raceway of wind.

And given that Wellington is at the far southern end of the North Island, sitting adjacent to the Cook Strait, which separates North from South, I imagine the windiness is enhanced by a funneling effect between the islands. On over half the days annually, average wind speeds will exceed 30 mph, or so we were told.

We stayed in a hotel, the Kingsgate, where friends had stayed earlier in the year. They especially commended the location for its being near the national government's executive and legislative buildings. Photos 21C thru E show the main buildings. There are many others. Free tours of the parliamentary complex are on offer every day, but we didn’t set aside time to take advantage of them. Ours was a whirlwind stay. We can’t begin to suggest how anyone else might spend two full days in the capital. But here’s a report of what we did.

We arrived by train on Saturday shortly before 7 PM and settled into our hotel room after shopping at the railway station’s great little New World supermarket. The following morning after breakfast in our room (thanks to the visit to the supermarket), we headed to church. The previous evening we’d noted that the Anglican St Paul’s Cathedral was but two blocks from our hotel (As we subsequently learned, the Catholic cathedral was just a bit further). The foundation stone for St Paul’s Cathedral was laid by Queen Elizabeth in 1954, upon her first visit to New Zealand. The cathedral was built in three stages over the following years, the last stage — the building of the tower — also being inaugurated by the queen (Photo 21.G). Because of lessons learned from the 1931 Napier earthquake, the cathedral was made of reinforced concrete. The building has a solid feel about it. The acoustics are good. The organ and its playing were splendid. Alas, no more than twenty percent of the pew seats were occupied. On the plus side, there were families with kids coming to church on a Sunday morning.

After church we walked to Old St Paul’s, which no longer serves as the home of a worshiping congregation. Following the occupation of the first stage of New St Paul’s, the church authorities intended to sell Old St Paul’s. But there was such a hue and cry, Old St Paul’s was preserved. The land is now owned by the national government. The New Zealand Historic Places Trust is charged with maintaining the structure and keeping it open to the public. Old St Paul's is a wooden structure (Photo 20.I). Wood was chosen over brick because the founders considered wood safer than brick in the event of earthquakes. Wellington is built in an area of active faults. Kiwis thought the next ‘Big One’ would hit Wellington, but as we all know the Big One hit where least expected — in Christchurch (See post 13.13). While the wooden church has endured, it had to be expanded laterally in its very early years to secure the structure against the buffeting of Wellington’s winds.

Besides wedding services conducted at Old St Paul’s when the premises are hired, Old St Paul’s hosts one annual service on the Sunday of the US Memorial Day weekend. A force of 20,000+ Marines was stationed in New Zealand during World War 2 to the common advantage of New Zealand (whose young men were serving in North Africa and the likes) and the USA (which needed a strategic foothold in the Southwest Pacific). The wreaths placed in Old St Paul’s are tokens of the remembrance and gratitude that Kiwis give for the presence of the Marines during the war (Photo 21.J).

After a Sunday lunch at a pub in downtown Welly we took advantage of the cable car service up to the city’s botanical gardens. The Wellington Cable Car has been running since 1902. It’s the most elaborate of the city's cable railways, with three tunnels and three bridges (which can be viewed in this YouTube video). But it’s not alone. There are over 400 cable railways in the city, most rather modest single-rail affairs leading up to homes that would otherwise be inaccessible. Wellington, like San Francisco (its sister city), is very hilly. But then much of New Zealand, especially the North Island, is hilly where it's not outright mountainous.

Before Sunday was over Jean and I attended a production of Midnight in Moscow, a play by Dean Parker, set in 1947 at New Zealand’s Moscow legation. The play and production were very good. The play is about friendship and loyalty and misplaced dreams. Midnight in Moscow was performed at the Circa Theatre, which is a small neighbor of the huge Te Papa Tongarewa, New Zealand’s national museum. We visited Te Papa the next day, on Monday.

But first on Monday we took an excellent guided bus tour of Wellington. We caught it near the building where Wellington’s i-Site (or information center) is housed. Photo 21.N captures that building. I include the photo not for its architectural interest (if any) but because it illustrates the winter fate of native southern beech trees on the left and imported deciduous trees, which defoliate in winter. The New Zealand landscape is green year around (droughts aside), except where exotic species have been introduced. Why bring in the exotics? That's a question for another day, but not here.

I won’t give a running account of the tour. I have included a number of cityscape pictures. From its very beginning Wellington reserved land to be kept as ‘bush’, covered with native plant life. So amidst all the housing, schools, offices, shops, and so forth you’ll find broad stretches of green. The town’s harbor, which used to be adjacent to the central business district ('CBD'), was re-established at a container yard (Photo 21.U), thereby allowing the CBD waterfront to be redeveloped. Old customs houses and cargo sheds have become venues for museums, restaurants, and shops. Open areas have been developed into ‘squares’. And all this has been populated with sculpture, kid-friendly playgrounds, much of it touched with whimsy, even a pair of public toilets made to look like lobster tails.

In touring about we were taken to a section of Wellington now known as ‘Wellywood’. Wellywood is just past the city airport (Photo 21.R). The airport is about 300 meters shy of being able to handle the really long-distance international flights. That's one reason all such flights operate in and of Auckland. Just south of the airport one encounters a Hollywood-like sign that ought to read ‘Wellywood’, not ‘Wellington’ (Photo 21.S). For south of the airport is the so-named district now drawing, reportedly, 4000 workers involved in New Zealand’s film industry. That industry has rightly become a source of pride as well as income.

After lunch at an Italian place on the waterfront, we visited the New Zealand Portrait Gallery (in an old warehouse). Then we visited the Wellington City & Sea Museum, which provides splendid insight into the history of this city on the sea. And finally we visited Te Papa. We only saw a small portion of Te Papa. All these museums provide free admission, which is generally customary in New Zealand. Only the Andy Warhol special exhibit at Te Papa required paid admission (NZ$17.50 per adult). Te Papa could be visited many times without exhausting its treasures. Of the three we visited, my favorite was the City & Sea Museum.

Somewhere near the street depicted in Photo 21.Y we visited Smith the Grocer Café, where both Jean and I ordered chai lattés. Not only were the lattés delicious but the barista knew how to spell… in cinnamon. With that this brief excursion to Wellington is over. We flew back north Tuesday morning and hope to return some day.

Warm regards,

Tim (& Jean)

PS. A subsequent visit to Wellington, in 2015, is reported in this blogpost.