A summer ride into our past - and future

BY ROD ORAM

AH, SUMMER! A time for visits to family, friends and fascinating places around the country. Good for the soul, good for the economy. Both need refreshing after a couple of rough years.

Maybe a tiki tour of business can help. So here are suggestions of places to visit and things to think about on your travels.

They tell us a bit about Kiwi business triumphs and disasters in the past, challenges today and opportunities to come.

As you spot many more over the holidays, please contribute them to the "Fans of the New Zealand Economy" page I am hosting on Facebook this summer. Called Kiwiki, you'll find it logging into www.facebook.com and searching for Kiwiki. Please add information, photos and links to foster discussion of New Zealand's economic prospects.

For starters:

Totara Estate, outside Oamaru

Visit the farm and slaughterhouse where the first shipments of frozen meat were prepared for the SS Dunedin. Its 1882 voyage proved we could get our meat to market on the other side of the world.

It's a story of great risk, failure, perseverance and eventual success. Importantly, though, we didn't invent the technology. We simply used better what various people in France, the UK and US developed. And Australians beat us to market by two years. But when our frozen meat eventually arrived in London it was judged far superior.

Then, as now, though, it was UK merchants rather than Kiwi farmers who made most of the money. Our meat industry still struggles to earn a better living further up the value chain.

The Totara Estate offers guided tours daily, details at www.totaraestate.co.nz.

Bunnythorpe, outside Palmerston North

Joseph Nathan's company began making milk powder here in 1904. It devised the Glaxo brand and began selling it in the UK. Glaxo was still making products here as late as 1973. But the story is usually told badly. We lay claim to starting the company that grew into GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies. The truth is, Nathan made his fortune here then shipped his wealth and family back to the UK.

So it was from London he spotted the opportunity to use American technology, British marketing power and his UK-domiciled wealth to turn New Zealand skim milk, then a waste product of butter-making poured on to fields as a fertiliser, into a valuable product.

Then, as now, we were only a source of raw material. Our primary sector is still wondering how to make valuable products. Lessons from the Glaxo story are on Kiwiki.

Opuha Dam

On Waitangi Day, 1997, heavy rains washed away the part-built Opuha Dam in South Canterbury. It was finished the following year at a cost of $32 million. Today, 50% of the water stored irrigates 16,000ha of highly productive, formerly drought-prone land.

The other 50% provides environmental flows year round in the Opuha and Opihi rivers, thereby improving their water quality and recreation activities and supplying water to users in Timaru. The dam, owned by local farmers, also generates 7.7MW/h of electricity a year while its lake provides abundant leisure opportunities.

To get there, go east from Fairlie on Highway 79, turn north to Trentham and then east on Opuha Dam Rd.

Visit a farm

Since we are one of the most urbanised peoples in the world, we should all visit farms from time to time to stay in touch with one of our major export sectors. The easiest way is if you have a relative or friend still on the land. If not, Federated Farmers' next Farm Day is March 28 – details at www.farmday.org.nz.

Unfortunately one of the most exciting farms in the country is open only to occasional organised tours. But you can glimpse it as you drive past at Tokanui, just off Highway 3, 8km south of Te Awamutu.

It is AgResearch's new 200ha, 800-cow development farm. It aims to increase forage production, stocking intensity and milk production while reducing environmental impacts.

Meanwhile, the Green Party has plenty of examples of farms with good environmental practices at www.greens.org.nz/goodfarmstories/list.

Coastal subdivisions

Take a drive along any popular stretch of coast this summer to see plenty of evidence of the spectacular boom and bust of coastal subdivisions. I lost count on my 200km ride around the Coromandel in October in the K2 cycle race. For an economist's view, read Rodney Dickens, a former head of research at ASB, at http://tinyurl.com/y9uaumc

Visit a city

If townies are going to visit farms to enjoy the experience and to learn about their challenges, then cockies should return the interest.

In Wellington, walk or cycle a stretch of the Great Harbour Way, a 72km route under development from Fitzroy Bay in the east to Sinclair Head in the west, details at www.greatharbourway.org.nz.

Along the way, consider how Wellington is reinventing the way it earns its living. For example, at Evans Bay nip over to 141 Park Rd, Miramar. This is one of the most advanced pieces of industrial infrastructure in the country. It is Peter Jackson's post-production facility, details at www.parkroadpost.co.nz with online links to allied neighbours such as Weta Workshop, Weta Digital and the Stone Street Studio, complete with its 2200m2 King Kong sound stage.

At 98 Customhouse Quay give a wave to Xero, the online accounting service which is revolutionising the way companies run their books. Coming soon is a personal finance version. Xero is the latest venture of serial software entrepreneur Rod Drury. He says he aims to achieve the Quadruple B: Build a Billion dollar Business from the Beach.

And detour to the Hope Gibbons Building, 7-11 Dixon St. This is the headquarters of Icebreaker. To save yourself the trouble of a worldwide tour of its value chain from high country merino stations, to design studio in Oregon, to manufacturing in Shanghai and selling globally, go to www.icebreaker.co.nz and follow the BAACODE.

In Auckland, take a trip up the Sky Tower. Scan the panorama and imagine what the region might be like 50 years from now. See Kiwiki for my view.

And take a walk along the waterfront and imagine how we might develop it in the next 20 years. For a guide, look at the 3D animations and fly-throughs on www.seacity.co.nz. During the seafood festival over Auckland Anniversary Weekend in January, visit the old red shed on North Wharf. Opening for the first time to the public, it will give you a feel for what's in store.

In Christchurch, see if you can spot a YikeBike. Time magazine recently listed this radical, folding, electric bike 15th in its global ranking of the 50 Best Inventions of 2009. Grant Ryan, a local engineer and serial software entrepreneur, and colleagues launched the YikeBike in Europe in September. You might glimpse them testing pre-production models around town. It will revolutionise personal urban transport. Details at www.yikebike.com.

Visit a town

The revitalisation of virtually every provincial town in the country over the past decade has been one of our great achievements. What's happened in your community? What role did you play?

Here are two of my favourites from my travels this year: Opotiki's excellent museum on Church St tells a lot about the town's past while www.opotikiharbour.co.nz tells of its ambitions in marine farming.

And in Invercargill, the Southern Institute of Technology produces video lectures in an old bank vault in a former town centre shopping arcade. Many are popular on iTunes U, the education section of Apple's online store. Last Wednesday, SIT's Intensive English series was the top download in the world.

My travels over the summer will take me to many more intriguing places. Tomorrow, for example, I'm cycling from Sumner to Hokitika with South Island friends. And in February, I'm cycling from Cape Reinga to Bluff with a group raising money for the Heart Foundation.

The journeys aren't really about the cycling. They're about the people and places along the way. You'll find my summer blogs about them at www.heartracer.org.nz/rodoram.

Wishing you all fascinating – and economically inspiring – travels. Go richly.

- © Fairfax NZ News