Today we drove south from Whitianga to Whakatane partly along the coast, but mostly inland. Much of the farming on the way was pastoral, as we’ve seen elsewhere so far, with cattle, both dairy and beef production everywhere, but more sheep in the north than here.
There is some arable, but with horticulture in evidence on the journey today, especially south of Katikati. This town was apparently very reliant on the production of kiwi fruit until the 1980s, when the price plummeted, and it has now become known as “Mural Town” as the exterior walls of many of the buildings in town have been painted to illustrate the business taking place in an effort to catch passing tourists.
Vineyards and avocados were plentiful and also other kinds of fruit: apple orchards, soft fruit like strawberries and blueberries. We bought some huge strawberries like this which we are looking forward to scoffing!
I had always thought blueberries grew on bushes rather like blackcurrants, but the “bushes” are more like small trees, and the ones we saw will apparently grow much larger.
We stopped in the hope of buying some blueberries to have with our cereal tomorrow, but were unlucky - they won’t be ripe for another couple of weeks.
Another fruit I knew nothing about was the persimmon. The leaf is a little like a large apple leaf, but the shape of the tree is wider. There was no fruit on these trees but I'm told one type of persimmon looks somewhat like a squashed tomato.
Jean
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