Hamish McKay: The Country spokesperson on the damage left behind by the Kaikōura floods

Kaikōura's main route south could be closed several more days, as flooding, debris and rockfall is cleared.

State Highway 1's back open north of the township, but it's still closed to Waipara, and the Inland Kaikōura Road also can't be used.

The Country's Jamie Mackay explained further. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Haimush mckaye, Host of the Countries with that fellow Hamish. Hello, Heather,
all right, what's the weather doing that's worrying you? Now?

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yeah, well, just following on from that sort of onslaught
through the whole kai Kura region, you know, there's some
reasonably learned types of some pretty heavy warnings through that
sort of the Wider Rapper up into the Hawk's Bay
and right through the tir Arparity on the east coast.
So look, it seems to be never ending at the moment.
And you know we've seen, you know a little bit

(00:28):
late to the piece the pictures we saw out of
the South Wider Rapper last weekend, and we've seen what's
happening in kai Kura. So just thinking of those people
at the moment because there's probably unfortunately more to come
over the next twenty four to forty eight hours.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, i'd imagine. So, Hey, what's going on with the
plowing World Champs team?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Well, we're pretty proud nation when it comes to plowing.
We've got our two competitors, Mark Dillon and Malcolm Taylor,
who sent their tractors, their plows, you know, their uniforms,
their parts up in a shipping container up to Croatia
for september's will chance, but unfortunately this ended up taking
the scenic route and we're not even actually sure where

(01:05):
the container is, but it's certainly not on the right
ocean to get them there sort of for late July
early August so they can be ready. So the shipping
company is basically we're not really sure got off loaded
in Sydney. I mean, plowing using somebody else's plower is
a bit like using somebody else's toothbrush, so it's not
really you know, these guys they need their equipment, and

(01:26):
of course we've got the twenty twenty nine World Champs
here too, so this won't give the Europeans much confidence
about coming down logistically to New Zealand to compete either.
So yeah, just feeling for Mark and Malcolm and all
the people concerned there because you know you, I mean
you couldn't you know, you couldn't air freight it unless
the government's got a spare plane out of a Harky
or something. But yeah, so tough for them. They're pretty

(01:47):
pretty shattered.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
By Themish, if you're in the plowing World Champs, what
are they measuring you on? Is it how fast you plow,
how straight you plow? What is it?

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Well, so like it's the neatness of your you know,
of how you turn that soil over and there are
it's a bit like sheeps hearing. There is quality, speed,
final product and everything. But you know that ability they
they these guys fine tune the furrows on their plows.
You know that whether it's one to for how many,

(02:17):
how many furries you have on it. You know that
turning over the soil in a line at one time,
but they do you know, it's it's pretty yeah, it's
it is speed, although I don't think speed always wins,
but you know, the ability to adapt to the soil
types and you know, different parts of the world. So
it's pretty you know, pretty intense and requires a lot
of fine tuning.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
I bet I bet not anything that I knew that
we were champs off before. Hey, what's up with the
zapp for the milk?

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, just just keeping on with our sort of theme
of innovation week on the country this week. You know,
there's a new one out from a company UK based
company who've been running a pilot in New Zealand called
called Nico and it's a look, it's a it's a
it's a really good thing for for dairy cockies to
be able to fix physical milk price on any business
day on an app. So you go, look, I want
to put X, Y number leaders whatever at this price.

(03:07):
I know what I'm going to get. You can you know,
you can determine the volume, and I guess it's just
an ability to hedge their bets even more and know
what they're actually going to get rather than waiting to
the end of the season to know what they're sort
of their numbers are, so they can can do some
real budgeting and you can mix it up a bit.

(03:28):
You can go, right, I'm going to take this price
on this day without amount of volume. And it just
goes to say, there you are standing on the farm
with the phone in your hand on an app selling
your milk right there, and then.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
That's pretty cool. A Hamish, thanks very much and you
had a long weekend, mate. Hamish mackay hosts of the Country.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
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