Having not left New Zealand in the past 20 years, getting away from the farm was destined to be a mission. I put a sign on the kitchen cupboard a week before saying “Sunday, 7.15am, in the car!” so we wouldn’t miss our flight out of Invercargill.
For a family always running late this was a test but we did it – surprisingly, because as we tore down the road all thoughts of the farm went on to the back-burner.
The real reason behind our trip was for our daughter to compete in the Oceania Swim Champs in Suva so while she was in camp at the Novotel Hotel we got real with the locals and stayed at the Best Western in city central.
Given Suva isn’t a tourist mecca, we stood out like the proverbial so I suggested both Phil and our 14-year-old son Max dress down while exploring the city.
Max’s answer was to buy a Fijian rugby shirt, which worked a treat – the Fijians loved his style. Phil, on the other hand had packed clothes that looked like he was still on the farm so dressing down wasn’t hard for him and he blended in perfectly.
We were barely hustled as we walked the streets and negotiated public transport to experience the real Fiji.
Travelling round the city with the locals on the oldest of buses, no windows and with reggae music blasting full-noise in the hot and humid heat was a highlight for me – it was an experience no money can buy and I felt like 20 again on my OE.
The amazing sights were an eye-opener and reminder of the lifestyle of poverty considered normal by many people in this world.
From a Kiwi farmer perspective, Max asked a pertinent question on why do we have so much pressure on us to be clean and green when clearly other countries don’t have to do the same?
The amazing sights were an eye-opener and reminder to the lifestyle of poverty considered normal by many people in this world.
It wasn’t the easiest of questions to answer other than saying it does seem unfair when many countries buying our lamb and beef have little regard for their own backyards but insist on ours being impeccable.
But, I told him, this is the reality of business.
Our stay in Suva was topped-off with the ultimate highlight when our daughter and her synchronised swim team achieved a silver medal.
As a mother, it is one of my proudest moments and not just because she earned a medal for her country but also because I have walked the walk with her these past months and experienced first-hand what high-performance athletes have to endure in order to reach their goals. It isn’t for the faint hearted.
The second week of our holiday was spent together as a family on the Coral Coast, as far away from anything farming as possible.
The biggest decision of the day was whether to swim in the pool or lagoon before breakfast.
The staff in our little resort were wonderful but in typical Kiwi farmer-style it was the caretaker David, a farmer from a nearby village, whom we become very friendly with.
I think we especially impressed him with being the only tourists on the beach on one particularly chilly day – it was 27C.
He’d never met anyone from Southland before. He showed us how to get the best coconuts and using a huge machete, which he always had close by, prepared coconut drinks-to-go Fiji-style for us on the beach.
Renee Baird’s synchronised swim team poised to enter the pool for their silver medal performance.
The usefulness of the metre-long machete wasn’t lost on Phil, who seeing the potential for having such a tool on the farm headed into the local village to buy himself one. The size of it – I’m amazed he got it through customs.
Now back in Godzone and the beginning of a new financial year, let’s hope this will be better financially than the last. I do have reservations, the most immediate being Brexit.
But I’d like to think our meat co-ops could be innovative around any real barriers this throws up.
I took some heart from a recent Alliance Group shed meeting hosting Sainsbury’s personnel to tell us about their challenges and goals, which I’d describe as bordering on basic.
I’d expected to hear their focus as being dynamic and world-leading so it was kind of unsettling. But what it did do was give me reassurance that our meat co-ops, for all their issues, are way ahead in many aspects of their business.
We are extremely innovative on a shoe-string budget and if we can grow this focus more there are huge opportunities opening out there for our red meat and by-products.
