Golden Bay - day excursion
‘Go back to Ta-ka-ka’ goes the song by Rod
Valente and sung by the Gypsy Pickers, and for my first visit
in more than 30 years I felt a peculiar magnetism toward this
isolated and seemingly non-conformist area. Ascending the
900m (2,000ft) summit and zig-zagging for 6 miles down the
steep side of the earthquake fault line to sea level of
Golden Bay certainly added to the feeling that we were
entering a different country, and there were signs that ones
interpretation of the rules for growing trees was about to be
challenged. We noticed pine trees (pinus radiata) growing poorly…
stricken with lichen, large branches dying or missing. In
lower-lying flatter patches the pines appeared to be of
normal vigour. Looking at soil profiles in the road cuttings,
the Moutere clay and granite changes quite suddenly to
limestone, with dissolved sinkholes - a rather foreign
looking scene to mainstream New Zealanders. The topsoil is
very leached on the bony higher mounds of this country hence
the stressed pines.
Approaching the town of Takaka we experienced brief heavy
showers of rain, each followed by a spell of warm sunshine,
then more rain would begin the cycle again - like an
accelerated version of our Western Bay of Plenty climate. We
are told this is typical, and helps explain why Golden Bay
has extremely high rainfall as well as extremely high
sunshine hours - and this combination helps plants grow.
There was little evidence of the lingering humidity of the
Western BOP where moulds and other undesirable growths
flourish at certain times, although we did see some large
fungi that were identified as being an edible mushroom, in a
Kiwifruit orchard which was slowly being converted to Acacia
melanoxylin (Tasmanian Blackwoods).
Indeed in one location the T-bar structure and vine was
being used to provide shelter for the young blackwoods. This
was near our first stop at the amazing ‘Devils
Boots’ rocks. A lot of Kiwifruit has been removed in the
general Nelson area, reverting to apples or other crops
requiring less fuss.
In the few profiles of soil we had time to examine, there
was a substantial rock and clay content that looked very
‘tight’ and slow draining - suggesting that deep
ripping of the soil for serious new crops would be advisable.
We saw a 3 year old Citrus plantation where a percentage of
trees had died. Phytophthora was suspected but soil tests
failed to reveal that the problem was of the collar rot form.
There were indications that the soil was acidic, such as
rampant giant buttercup, but pH test reputedly showed near
neutral. Injecting many of the declining trees as per the
avocado treatment had hastened their death.
Nearby other healthy trees included figs, avocados, and
even olives growing well in the wet. Some isolated chestnut
trees had survived, notably on small mound of soil which
enhanced drainage. The avocados were injected economically
using discarded 20ml horse syringes (hint: vets like eating
avocados?) which require only a 2mm drilling in the trunk. A
rubber band of motorcycle inner tube proved nearly ideal for
activating the plunger without the complexity of and air
buffer and pin-stops arrangement.
A few avocado trees away from the main planting half
obscured by sturdy shelter trees to the south, a large
tagasaste and other small trees had bumper crops in their
towering 5m branches. 
Students of mixed tree cropping such as championed by the
late Gordon Atkinson might have suggested several reasons for
the superiority of these trees, although access for
management was obviously challenging. The growers used an
manual extendable arm to pick and lower one avocado at a
time, and improvements to this method were contemplated
including a lightweight shute to deliver harvested fruit to
containers at ground level, which would allow the arm to keep
picking, up in the tree.
On this same property where so much effort was seen to
have been expended into nurturing special trees, one of their
major activities used mainly the wood of the humble willow.
Involving many fine wood-working skills including
steam-bending and tricky thicknessing, this
"timber" is crafted into fashionable little
olde-world baskets, known as trugs.
The pioneer administrators in Golden Bay apparently set
aside areas for village centres or ‘commons’ which
in those economic times were not developed further, except
that nearby residents planted trees from their homelands on
them. Many of these areas survive, so that unexpected clumps
of exotic tree such as maples or oaks ‘crop up’
along the wayside.
In keeping with the contrary nature of the Takaka
environment were the many alternative lifestylers in
evidence, adding colour to the township as well. We would
have to recommend the Whole Meal eatery, and nearby natural
icecream shop which incorporated your choice of local berries
and fruit in their servings. The area seemed to be a vibrant
and growing locality.
We are indebted to the Nelson Branch of the NZTCA for
providing an interesting conference and outings despite
extremely limited resources of people power. We saw only a
small selection of Golden Bay with travel consuming so much
of the available time, but if we ever have a whole week to
spare we will grab our raincoats and gumboots and head over
the hill again, drawn ‘back to Takaka’.
Blameless
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Updated: Wednesday, 11 June 2003