Community leaders detail lockdown pain at Covid inquiry
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RNZ News
42 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Country Life: Sweet success for Coromandel couple's organic honey
The hives are scattered across farmland, orchards and other areas in parts of the northern Coromandel peninsula Photo: Supplied A honey shed on a hill is buzzing with the sound of honey flowing into jars as the bees take a hard-earned rest from honey-making. Country Life meets Shayne and Elizabeth Mackenzie whose organic honey is produced from hives scattered over remote parts of the northern Coromandel Peninsula. Shayne Mackenzie has just wrapped up queen rearing for the season - a tricky job, but one that's vital to keep his organic honey operation humming in the far reaches of the Coromandel Peninsula. "Timing's everything. Big, long, sunny days is what you want when those queens come out." To keep moving ahead and to deal with all the stresses on hives these days, healthy queens for the next season are crucial, he said. Shayne rears queen bees to replace older queens in order to keep colony numbers up and maximise honey flow. He uses a grafting technique to collect and place the correct size larvae into special queen cell cups. Photo: Supplied "Often the queen will fail at a bad time, and then you'll end up with a drone-laying hive [...] pretty much it's a death sentence for them. "There's a whole lot of male bees just stuck in the cells, really, because if they get too weak and there's not enough help to get out, that's what happens." Follow Country Life on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts. Pouring and packing honey Photo: RNZ/Sally Round It was early autumn when Country Life dropped into the Mackenzies' honey shed not far from Colville, and with the honey harvest and queen-rearing over, there was still plenty to do. Shayne and his wife and business partner Elizabeth were filling jars and packing them into boxes stamped with the Woodland's Organic Honey label, to be sent off to honey-lovers in New Zealand, Europe and Asia. This year the couple won another two gold medals and one silver at the Outstanding Food Producer Awards for their multifloral and mānuka honey varieties, and they have lately launched their rewarewa and kānuka labels. Woodland's organic honey is exported to Europe and Asia as well as sold online and in New Zealand Photo: RNZ/Sally Round Woodland's honey range includes kānuka and mānuka varieties Photo: Supplied The Mackenzies are one of New Zealand's few organic honey producers who must meet a multitude of requirements to ensure certified organic status. Shayne and his small team of beekeepers travel around northern parts of the Coromandel to tend the hives scattered over farmland, orchards and land owned by communities, ensuring distance from spraying, regular testing and also ensuring hives aren't taken out of the area, all subject to audit. "You have to be a long way from any heavy agriculture or even a large town. "Leaving honey on the hives, it's part of the gig, you know, we have to leave food for the bees. That's a big deal." Shayne started in the bee business as a teenager on summer jobs, eventually taking on the company which started out with one truck, and "some pretty old equipment." "It's pretty much 30 years since I first went out with Don Sutherland harvesting, who was the original owner of the bees around here. "He had some quite vicious bees and I was quite young, and it didn't really go that well getting stung. I swelled up pretty bad. "I'd like to think we've tamed the bees a little bit by breeding some slightly kinder ones," he said, laughing. Woodland's Organic Honey beekeepers in the field Photo: Supplied The landscape has changed too. The Mackenzies are contributing to the diminishing gorse, which the bees have a taste for, planting 1500 mainly mānuka trees. Elizabeth met Shayne while working as a shepherd near Port Jackson further north. "I've, you know, sort of taken over all the marketing, exports, sales, the books, social media. "When you own your own business, you fill all of those roles." Woodland's Organic Honey beekeepers in the field Photo: Supplied So how have the pair weathered turbulent times in the honey industry, with oversupply a particular problem in recent years? "Well, fortunately, when times were good, we didn't just buy a Ferrari," Shayne said. They have made strategic investments and adapted to market conditions. "Because I do know that the business can be up and down enormous amounts, like I used to think it could be plus or minus 60 percent but after the other year (after Cyclone Gabrielle) and we got eight percent of the crop, I guess that means you can be plus or minus 92 percent. "We just found ways to raise capital and keep going." Things are looking more positive though, Elizabeth added. "It's still going to be slow like the hive numbers have about halved in the last few years, and this year's national crop is just below average. "There has not been as much honey produced so that helps even out the supply and demand, so I guess we just have to get back to a place where there's more of a level playing field."
RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
Clean up of Wellington beach toxic dump site cost nearly $1 million
Te Raekaihau Point in Wellington. Photo: RNZ / Nick James Cleaning up an old toxic dump site on a Wellington beach has cost nearly a million dollars. In late 2021, a member of the public told local authorities they could see asbestos on a bank at Te Raekaihau Point, which sits between Lyall Bay and Princess Bay, an area popular for walkers, runners and cyclists. The council did investigations of the site in July 2022 and August 2023 which found evidence of asbestos, oil, heavy metals, zinc, arsenic and lead. They said it appeared the area was used for sand extraction in the 1930s, with it being back filled with waste likely in the 1950s or 60s. Earlier this year RNZ reported that the council would excavate, wrap and move to the material to the southern landfill, due to the area being at risk of erosion and storm surges that could have led to it leaking. Over three weeks in May that work was done, which also included the relocation of native lizards called Mokomoko and digging up 2,200 tonnes of waste. Wellington City Council has confirmed to RNZ that the work costed nearly $1 million with half of it being paid for by the government through the $30 million Contaminated Sites and Vulnerable Landfills Fund announced in October. A council marine and coastal project manager Joel De Boer told RNZ he was aware that there may be more sites like this around the city. "A lot of them will already be covered, some of them may already be capped over and it may not be until you know a point in time when they become exposed that action will be taken." De Boer said it was not a not cheap job to clean these dumpsites up so the council's job was about reacting to them when it could. He said that from his conversations with the Ministry of Environment there were many sites like this across New Zealand. A site validation report which would determine the final levels of any contaminants was being finished and would be peer reviewed over the next few weeks. The council expected it to show the area was safe. Throughout the Wellington region there are more than 100 closed landfill sites, many of which lay under popular parks and reserves. When RNZ first reported on the South Coast site in January environment scientist Dr Jeff Seadon said it was not surprising. "What we've got is something in the order of hundreds if not thousands of these sites around New Zealand. A lot of these sites are known by councils, but there are also a lot that are still unfound or undetected." Seadon said during the 19th and 20th centuries, waste was often dumped because it was convenient and created some extra land. He said with larger storm surges and sea level rise, these dumps were being swept out and exposed.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- RNZ News
Department of Conservation cutting 71 roles to modernise the government agency
File photo. Photo: RNZ/ Nick Monro The Department of Conservation is cutting 71 roles in an effort it says to modernise the government agency. The announcement was a result of a change process released in May which originally pitched axing 84 jobs. The agency would disestablish 143 administrative and assistant roles and create 72 new ones which would result in a net loss of 71 jobs. Of the new jobs 25 would be part time. DOC's deputy director-general of organisation support, Mike Tully said the decisions weren't made lightly but are needed to modernise and operate sustainably. "This review is about making DOC work better. DOC needs to change the way we work to make everyday tasks easier, balancing our needs with the various challenges we face." Tully said the changes were part of an organisation-wide shift towards self-service, taking advantage of new technology and improved systems and processes being introduced at DOC this year. "The new systems will be more efficient and easier to use, which means more time spent on conservation and less on admin." PSA National Secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said that the removal of staff that monitored radios posed health and safety risks. "The current support staff have sizeable health and safety responsibilities, such as monitoring staff radio systems and helping to manage emergencies like fires. "The loss of these team members will mean that these important duties will fall on others - and pose a significant health and safety risk." Fitzsimons said that making 25 roles part time would be a blow workers who cannot make ends meet on a part time salary, and who in small towns would struggle to find other work. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
