Mahurangi Matters, 17 July 2019 – Off the Record

Wedded bliss

Mangawhai’s Mady Jessup shared an insight into his married life on the Mangawhai Locals Page last month. “I’m so bored,” he writes. “It’s my silver wedding anniversary, so I bought a map of the world and put it on the wall, gave my beloved wife a dart and said ‘wherever the dart lands we will holiday for two weeks!’ Well, now we are camped out near the skirting board in the laundry for a fortnight…”

$458 per grape

A local entrepreneur wondered whether there was an opportunity here after posting that a bunch of 24 red grapes sold at auction in Japan for $11,000 this month. The Ruby Roman grapes are prized for their high sugar content, low acidity and juiciness, and only about 26,000 are expected to be sold this year to maintain their exclusivity.