Friday, April 16, 2010

Hihi Olive Estate






On March 9th, we left for New Zealand to help with the 2010 olive harvesting. Our friends in Hihi raise a variety of olives on hundreds of trees. With that number of trees, help is always needed when the olives ripen and must be picked. This season, not all the trees were bending over with the weight of the fruits. The water situation in the Far North may have a terrific impact on the oil and olives this year. We sure hope not! The ground was extremely hard and dry. Large cracks had formed, wide enough to sink your foot into at the base of the trees. The trees varied in the amount of olives that were produced, some with a
handful and other trees with baskets filled to the brim.

In spite of harsh weather conditions this fall, the Hihi Olive Estate continues to produce award winning oils to sell throughout New Zealand.

Here are a few pictures of the groves and landscape.

6 comments:

K and S said...

hard work but sounds like lots of fun too!

Penny said...

Beautiful country and what a great opportunity to be at the source of it all.

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

Love the travel you do. I would love to visit New Zealand. Thanks for the Saturday morning fast trip!

Simona Carini said...

I have fond memories of our trip to NZ: what a beautiful country. Nice photos!

Sam Hoffer / My Carolina Kitchen said...

I agree with K & S, this sounds like hard work. The cracks in the ground sound scary. Not a good thing. Thanks for taking us along on your trip.
Sam

L Vanel said...

Thanks for taking me along on this visit! So interesting.