We had such a good time, staying on a kiwifruit farm in Te Puke. (In case you’re wondering the word is not ‘puke’, it’s more like pookie. And these are young kiwifruit vines.)

It was great to be on a farm again. We stayed in a lovely farmhouse, surrounded by trees, some full of citrus, and others full of flowers – magnolias and camellias I think. And there were lots of tiny birds – fantails. They came so close, whirring up to us as we walked around the vines.

Never realised until I got there, how famous the area is for its kiwifruit. They were growing everywhere. You could spot the lands, because of the high hedges running along them to stop the wind. The pickers had just harvested the fruit on the farm where we were staying. Wish I’d seen that. It’s all done by hand, with the old vines trellised just high enough for the pickers to stand beneath, and the rows just wide enough for a little tractor to fit between. Everything so precise. I think China and Japan get most of the fruit, especially the golden kiwi, which are delicious. The golden ones grow up wires suspended like tipis.

Hard to believe it’s almost seven months since I was there.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023