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Farmers struggling to make ends-meet are looking at other ways to save the family farm and tourism is proving to be a viable option in the Mahurangi region.
Tourism is second only to the dairy industry, pulling in $29.8 billion, a record amount last year. Meanwhile the Fonterra payout for the dairy industry is roughly half what it was two years ago.
Regional tourism co-ordinator Olivia Austin says there are plenty of examples of farmers diversifying in the Matakana region.
“There are a number of businesses that have started to successfully run a tourism operation which complements their farming/growing operations. Examples include Pakiri Horse Rides, Warkworth Horse Riding, Sheepworld, Mahurangi Oysters, Boutique Farmstay, Jack Boots Farmstay, and all of the producers who attend the Matakana Village Farmers Market – this is also a key tourist attraction,” Olivia says.
Warkworth couple Roger and Heather Mackenzie struggled after taking over the family’s 138-acre farm. Heather’s dad bought the farm in 1980 and the family had tried several different options to keep the farm alive.
“Before diversifying we tried sheep, but couldn’t make any money out of that, so my by-line became ‘saving the family farm’,” Roger says.
“We went into grazing cattle, couldn’t make any money out of that, so we tried goats and that didn’t work, by 1990 it was dire so we wrote an ad for a Japanese newspaper and had international students come stay with us.”
The farm stay business helped Roger and Heather, but it was never going to secure their future on the farm. In the early 1990s Riding For The Disabled approached them and at the end of 1995, Horse Riding Warkworth opened commercially.
Today the tourism operation has 38 horses and a barn full of tack for visiting riders.
Roger puts their success down to ‘Kaizen,’ a Japanese word meaning to continually improve.
His advertising is multi lingual and wife Heather has learnt to speak Japanese, French and some Chinese and Korean.
“I get them to teach me a little bit of their language and I teach them horse riding. It’s about building a connection,” Heather says.
Roger believes that local tourism industry owners need to promote themselves better.
“If we wait for a government initiative we’ll starve! You need to get out there, talk to people and remember these people are travellers, not tourists. We are 45 minutes away from our biggest market – Aucklanders that’s the mother lode”
Simon Townsend is the owner operator of the multi award winning A Kiwi Farmstay. Simon offers not just accommodation, but a total rural experience, including helping out with animal husbandry on his 10-acre farm in Ahuroa. Simon says that farming and tourism are inextricably linked.
“Farming is a massive part of our culture and history. Overseas visitors want to go rural and become part of a kiwi family and to be shown the kiwi culture,” Simon says.
For the Japanese market in particular, he believes that farm-based tourism is the point of difference that they are looking for. Adventure tourism is readily available in countries that are much closer, like Thailand and Malaysia. He also says the Mahurangi region is ideally placed geographically to attract tourists.
“They can start their holiday experience within 45 minutes of getting off the plane, they don’t need a two hour connecting flight to Queenstown. We should be aiming to beat Queenstown as a visitor destination.”
