July 28, 2025 • 8 mins
An award-winning rural journalist from Pongaroa on Cyclone Gabrielle and how her farm is recovering two years on.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're going to go to well, I know she's on
the road today up through the Northern Hawks Bay, but
of course domicile down near Polara, which is sort of
northern Wider Rapper Southern Hawks Bay Award winning journalists.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
In fact, a few years ago.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Under another guy's Rebecca Greaves and I teamed up and
we won the Journalistic the Egg.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Journal Journalism Guild Award.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Sadly it was for the coverage of something we prefer
not to have covered, that being cyclone.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Gabriel Becks joined us. Now, how are you.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
I'm great, thanks time, How are you. It's great to
hear hear you doing the country.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Oh, it's great to be in here for the old
boy is Damien kind of referred to him.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Earlier, but yeah, nice to be here. Right.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Look, one of our our collaborations was the coverage of
Cyclone Gabriel and it hit obviously such a wide sway
the country, but you were down there in Polara, right
in the heart of it.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
What do we cut years on?
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I mean, how's the recovery going in that area?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Yeah, I mean we weren't anywhere near as bad as
some of the more know more northern areas and Hawks
Bay actually going up on my way to go to
instead of wire or to see a farm. It's a
case study that would have been quite affected by the cyclones.
So I'm really interested to get on fun and see
some of the environmental stuff I've been doing to kind
of future proof I guess, well, make the business more
(01:27):
resilient for future events. But yeah, we we've pretty much
fixed everything. The that country is still just hanging out
because we're not really sure what to do with it.
We haven't sort of fertilized it. It's defenses are I mean,
the boundary fences are secured, but there's not a lot
else out there. But otherwise we've we've spent a lot
(01:48):
of money and yeah, I mean we've spent the money
up front. We borrowed money to do it so that
we could farm the farm again really so to contain
it to two years and then.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
On you know, yeah, so you shrew up, so I
got the boundary fence back up and then and then
then let the further or out country sort of run
itself a bit, because I know you had some pretty
good results in terms of landing percentages and things that
when the US were given.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
A little bit more sort of of their freedom. I
remember you're.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Saying, yeah, well that was one blessing I guess was
that at that time we had plenty of feed and
Ruchard had had the foresight to open my husband to
open a few gates, so you know, when we couldn't
get out the back, which we couldn't, they were able
to sort of spread themselves out of it, which meant
that they all had a nice time and had plenty
of feed. And yeah, we did have a pretty good
(02:40):
lemming percentage after that will cyclon, So I guess there's
some silver lining.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, so a lot of popular planting that sort of thing.
What have you done.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Yeah, well, we already had a whole fun plan with Horizons,
and we were already doing a pretty extensive popular in
wallow planting program, but we've really rent that up so
we basically take as many poplars as we can in
willows as we can get. So this year I think
we've got three fifty plant and you know, they're all
being space planted so that they can link up and
(03:10):
they're actually eligible for the eight years. They are helping
secure some of our roads, and the council's actually jumped
on board with that, and we've now got a program
our way where they're doing they're actually funding that, and
some people came and planted more so they saw some
of the stuff that we've actually been doing on the
faces below the roads, and they will hopefully help combat
(03:33):
the erosion on our farm but also stop the roads
from slipping and therefore hopefully mean that our access can
stay maintained when we're on these gravel country roads. That
there's nothing that I was looking at the stock truck
and trailer unit and can be a little challenging.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Yes, a little a little vulnerable with those populars once
their root structure starts to take hold. I mean prettyly
wondrous things really, to be honest.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Wow, do you know we had we had a group
of grown future farmers actually came on Monday last week
to have a look at what we were doing with
that sort of thing. He look at some soils and
we had someone Molly Elton from Balance and also our
local Timmy Cooper who helps us from Horizons with the poplars,
and we showed the students and they all planted one.
(04:22):
So Richard was happy because it was twelve less for
him to plant, and she bought this picture which showed
the root structure like it was a popular that had
actually been dug up. Someone must have spent I don't
know a long time, but I could not get over
how they spread. So it just gave me that visual
of what it would look like that met of roots
(04:42):
underneath the soil, and how it would do such a
good job of holding the hillside together. So yeah, I
mean they look nice. You know, you feel good when
you plant them, but they also really do a job.
So yeah, we've been doing a massive program of that,
and we'll just continue. It's like a business as usual
every every year.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Now, aside from giving your husband Richard to tune up
after being laid back from golf. Occasionally you used to
give me a bit of a tune up when i'd
go back to nineteen eighty six eighty seven post ride
genomics and talk about how we actually knitted about forty
cents for a lamb. Well you've added two hundred dollars
to that recently. I see two hundred dollars and forty
cents for truck loads.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Four cents, but hey, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
You don't spot here is over thirty six cents. Rebecca grees.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
It started with the true but yeah, I mean I
think that's the first time we've ever cracked over two
hundred dollars for a lamb. But it's quite insane to
think that the year ago, you know, it was one
hundred dollars. If we're doing well and you know this
year it's two hundred, it's like, maybe it'd be quite
good if we could just consistently get something in the middle.
I don't know, but yeah, we're happy.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah, no, as you should be. As you should be.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
And I won't go back to nineteen eighty six and
one hundred and seven dollars angus wiena stairs that were magnificent.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
No, I'm not going to go there because showing your eye,
you show your age. I was one.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Oh my goodness, don't do that to me.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Now, Polara and the community and the pub and you've
got a thing, what do you go to think called
top team or something that you do there.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Yeah, it's coming up. I mean it's not for a
little while, but we have it every year and you know,
I would say that our team has won a few times,
so you know, we're not a top team.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
That you know you want to you know, you can
gloat all your light, but I need some information on
what is top team And.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
I think I think you should make a team or
maybe you know, we could bring you into our team
this year. I have to check you know, the availability
that you have five people, you have to have one female,
excuse me. And you you get matched with another team
and you go around and you play five different sports.
So you play squash, you shoot some claybords, you play
(06:54):
some ultimate shot golf. I think do you call it ambrose?
Is that what it is? Poland darts at the pub
and I think we did indoor bowls last year. We've
done that ball, and we've done all sorts of other
things in the past that the other sports stay the same.
And then there's also a theme and you get points
for your dress up and the winning team is crowned
(07:16):
top team for the year. And it's such a great
It's always the first weekend of October, so that's we've
got some time home so you can get in training.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yeah, and we could make I feel like it.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
I feel like it has these sort of wheels to
be a national event, you know, like Polara could be
host The first nationals are regional winners, you know, especially
the dress up part. I know that'd be big for Jamie.
He'd be into that.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Does he like it?
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Well apparently, Yeah, And I've just just heard that little
rumor on the grapevine apparently. And it doesn't have to
go far to get the dress up, if you know
what I mean.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yes, anyway, well, guess what the theme the dress up
theme is this year. We've already got it.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
What is it?
Speaker 3 (07:55):
You're gonna love this? It's anything but close?
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Oh my goodness zero zero dear well of those polarara
after all, Rebecca Grees always great to check to you.
And I know one very last quick thing. The new
road over the Lower Rouhiney Rangers, because it's on the
roy Heeney side, not the town of Ruis from Woodville
suddenly become this fantastic little town.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Are you.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
You like to do a bit of retail therapy and
Parnaston North, so you're loving that that that new ride
over the hill.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Well, since I broke my hand, I have to go
to Parmeston quite regularly for hands for the hospital visits.
So yes, it's been quite nice. That's like, oh, it's
a scenic to all. I mean it's it's like a
tourist attraction all its own. It's got sculptures and walking
tracks and biking tracks. Yeah, it's amazing. The native plantings
are incredible.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
It's fantastic. We'll talk again. Rebecca grees here on the
country
We're going to go to well, I know she's on
the road today up through the Northern Hawks Bay, but
of course domicile down near Polara, which is sort of
northern Wider Rapper Southern Hawks Bay Award winning journalists.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
In fact, a few years ago.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Under another guy's Rebecca Greaves and I teamed up and
we won the Journalistic the Egg.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Journal Journalism Guild Award.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Sadly it was for the coverage of something we prefer
not to have covered, that being cyclone.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Gabriel Becks joined us. Now, how are you.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
I'm great, thanks time, How are you. It's great to
hear hear you doing the country.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Oh, it's great to be in here for the old
boy is Damien kind of referred to him.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Earlier, but yeah, nice to be here. Right.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Look, one of our our collaborations was the coverage of
Cyclone Gabriel and it hit obviously such a wide sway
the country, but you were down there in Polara, right
in the heart of it.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
What do we cut years on?
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I mean, how's the recovery going in that area?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Yeah, I mean we weren't anywhere near as bad as
some of the more know more northern areas and Hawks
Bay actually going up on my way to go to
instead of wire or to see a farm. It's a
case study that would have been quite affected by the cyclones.
So I'm really interested to get on fun and see
some of the environmental stuff I've been doing to kind
of future proof I guess, well, make the business more
(01:27):
resilient for future events. But yeah, we we've pretty much
fixed everything. The that country is still just hanging out
because we're not really sure what to do with it.
We haven't sort of fertilized it. It's defenses are I mean,
the boundary fences are secured, but there's not a lot
else out there. But otherwise we've we've spent a lot
(01:48):
of money and yeah, I mean we've spent the money
up front. We borrowed money to do it so that
we could farm the farm again really so to contain
it to two years and then.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
On you know, yeah, so you shrew up, so I
got the boundary fence back up and then and then
then let the further or out country sort of run
itself a bit, because I know you had some pretty
good results in terms of landing percentages and things that
when the US were given.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
A little bit more sort of of their freedom. I
remember you're.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Saying, yeah, well that was one blessing I guess was
that at that time we had plenty of feed and
Ruchard had had the foresight to open my husband to
open a few gates, so you know, when we couldn't
get out the back, which we couldn't, they were able
to sort of spread themselves out of it, which meant
that they all had a nice time and had plenty
of feed. And yeah, we did have a pretty good
(02:40):
lemming percentage after that will cyclon, So I guess there's
some silver lining.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, so a lot of popular planting that sort of thing.
What have you done.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Yeah, well, we already had a whole fun plan with Horizons,
and we were already doing a pretty extensive popular in
wallow planting program, but we've really rent that up so
we basically take as many poplars as we can in
willows as we can get. So this year I think
we've got three fifty plant and you know, they're all
being space planted so that they can link up and
(03:10):
they're actually eligible for the eight years. They are helping
secure some of our roads, and the council's actually jumped
on board with that, and we've now got a program
our way where they're doing they're actually funding that, and
some people came and planted more so they saw some
of the stuff that we've actually been doing on the
faces below the roads, and they will hopefully help combat
(03:33):
the erosion on our farm but also stop the roads
from slipping and therefore hopefully mean that our access can
stay maintained when we're on these gravel country roads. That
there's nothing that I was looking at the stock truck
and trailer unit and can be a little challenging.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Yes, a little a little vulnerable with those populars once
their root structure starts to take hold. I mean prettyly
wondrous things really, to be honest.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Wow, do you know we had we had a group
of grown future farmers actually came on Monday last week
to have a look at what we were doing with
that sort of thing. He look at some soils and
we had someone Molly Elton from Balance and also our
local Timmy Cooper who helps us from Horizons with the poplars,
and we showed the students and they all planted one.
(04:22):
So Richard was happy because it was twelve less for
him to plant, and she bought this picture which showed
the root structure like it was a popular that had
actually been dug up. Someone must have spent I don't
know a long time, but I could not get over
how they spread. So it just gave me that visual
of what it would look like that met of roots
(04:42):
underneath the soil, and how it would do such a
good job of holding the hillside together. So yeah, I
mean they look nice. You know, you feel good when
you plant them, but they also really do a job.
So yeah, we've been doing a massive program of that,
and we'll just continue. It's like a business as usual
every every year.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Now, aside from giving your husband Richard to tune up
after being laid back from golf. Occasionally you used to
give me a bit of a tune up when i'd
go back to nineteen eighty six eighty seven post ride
genomics and talk about how we actually knitted about forty
cents for a lamb. Well you've added two hundred dollars
to that recently. I see two hundred dollars and forty
cents for truck loads.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Four cents, but hey, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
You don't spot here is over thirty six cents. Rebecca grees.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
It started with the true but yeah, I mean I
think that's the first time we've ever cracked over two
hundred dollars for a lamb. But it's quite insane to
think that the year ago, you know, it was one
hundred dollars. If we're doing well and you know this
year it's two hundred, it's like, maybe it'd be quite
good if we could just consistently get something in the middle.
I don't know, but yeah, we're happy.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah, no, as you should be. As you should be.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
And I won't go back to nineteen eighty six and
one hundred and seven dollars angus wiena stairs that were magnificent.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
No, I'm not going to go there because showing your eye,
you show your age. I was one.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Oh my goodness, don't do that to me.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Now, Polara and the community and the pub and you've
got a thing, what do you go to think called
top team or something that you do there.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Yeah, it's coming up. I mean it's not for a
little while, but we have it every year and you know,
I would say that our team has won a few times,
so you know, we're not a top team.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
That you know you want to you know, you can
gloat all your light, but I need some information on
what is top team And.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
I think I think you should make a team or
maybe you know, we could bring you into our team
this year. I have to check you know, the availability
that you have five people, you have to have one female,
excuse me. And you you get matched with another team
and you go around and you play five different sports.
So you play squash, you shoot some claybords, you play
(06:54):
some ultimate shot golf. I think do you call it ambrose?
Is that what it is? Poland darts at the pub
and I think we did indoor bowls last year. We've
done that ball, and we've done all sorts of other
things in the past that the other sports stay the same.
And then there's also a theme and you get points
for your dress up and the winning team is crowned
(07:16):
top team for the year. And it's such a great
It's always the first weekend of October, so that's we've
got some time home so you can get in training.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yeah, and we could make I feel like it.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
I feel like it has these sort of wheels to
be a national event, you know, like Polara could be
host The first nationals are regional winners, you know, especially
the dress up part. I know that'd be big for Jamie.
He'd be into that.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Does he like it?
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Well apparently, Yeah, And I've just just heard that little
rumor on the grapevine apparently. And it doesn't have to
go far to get the dress up, if you know
what I mean.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yes, anyway, well, guess what the theme the dress up
theme is this year. We've already got it.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
What is it?
Speaker 3 (07:55):
You're gonna love this? It's anything but close?
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Oh my goodness zero zero dear well of those polarara
after all, Rebecca Grees always great to check to you.
And I know one very last quick thing. The new
road over the Lower Rouhiney Rangers, because it's on the
roy Heeney side, not the town of Ruis from Woodville
suddenly become this fantastic little town.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Are you.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
You like to do a bit of retail therapy and
Parnaston North, so you're loving that that that new ride
over the hill.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Well, since I broke my hand, I have to go
to Parmeston quite regularly for hands for the hospital visits.
So yes, it's been quite nice. That's like, oh, it's
a scenic to all. I mean it's it's like a
tourist attraction all its own. It's got sculptures and walking
tracks and biking tracks. Yeah, it's amazing. The native plantings
are incredible.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
It's fantastic. We'll talk again. Rebecca grees here on the
country
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