40 | Hawke’s Bay: Meiros Orchard T T Richard Loader Family’s long hard slog to recovery Post Cyclone Gabrielle, Old man pines, slash and silt covered the once flourishing orchard. REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Meiros Orchard in Hawke’s Bays Dartmoor Valley has been owned, developed and cherished by the Wilson family since 1993, when they planted Braeburn, Royal Gala and Fuji on the first 10 hectares of land. Over a thirty-year period, Craig and Gill Wilson expanded their orchard to embrace fifty hectares in the valley, replacing the original apple varieties with the more sought-after Dazzle, Pacific Queen, Kiku, and Jugala. That’s thirty years of passion and substantial investment that was unceremoniously ravaged by Cyclone Gabrielle in just a few short hours that seemed to never end for those in the thick end of it. Meiros orchard, like many in the region, lay under flood waters that delivered silt and debris, destroying a house, and RSE accommodation, tools and machinery and worst of all, half the orchard’s precious trees. And, all of that came on the coattails of the previous two years that harboured rising labour and compliance costs, as well as Covid. Reflecting back to February’s events, Craig says there was heartbreak and more than just a few tears. Wading around in the silt trying to clean everything was very hard work, though he says the main thing was that no lives had been lost. “Our son Alistair and his partner Grace, had been living in the house and they and the RSE workers were all on their roofs for six hours, with water lapping around the gutters. The water was rising pretty quickly and Alistair was thinking about swimming to a shed at one point because he felt it was going to keep on rising. Thankfully it didn’t. There was a lot of willow, pine, and some slash. A lot of old man pine that had fallen off cliffs up the tributary rivers washed down, gave us the love and ended up on the orchard.” A thick layer of silt surrounded the remaining fruit trees, and the Wilsons were advised the trees would not survive for more than three weeks unless the silt was removed. “We were digging the silt out from the trees for months, but there was a big unknown as to whether they would survive. In the end it was successful. Our silt was quite a sandy type of silt, which enabled the tree roots to breathe. The trees we were digging out three or four months later have survived and flourished. It was very expensive; about $40,000 to $50,000 a hectare to dig them out, but it was well worth it. We have now moved about 100,000 cubic metres of silt to silt dumps up the valley. That was a very frustrating process. In the early days we had to move silt out from the trees and put it in front of the orchards we had lost even though there was a silt dump over the Give us a call today to see what we can do for your growing operation! +64 6 843 5330 www.leicesters.co.nz Maximise your plant growth and yield Transforming visions into value and driving business success. We’re right there with you, especially when times are challenging. Accountants & business advisers 06 876 8124 admin@pkfcs.co.nz. pkfcs.co.nz PKF Carr & Stanton are proud to support Meiros Orchard INDEPENDENT CONSULTANTS TO HORTICULTURE Helping fruit growers navigate challenging times 06-872-7080 hawkesbay@agfirst.co.nz www.agfirst.co.nz
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