From The Salt Barons Desk - Mid Year Update

Hello there, my well-seasoned friends from the winterless North where frankly, its been feeling very wintery indeed.

We are very soggy up here at the moment, but I have to say I wasn’t here for any of the “one in five hundred year” rain that apparently fell.  Rather we were down in the Waikato for two weeks working on a little project that is very dear to my heart.

Over winter the humble little Pig finds itself with a bit of spare time on it’s hands, and while building new evaporators helps pass some of the time, it also allows us to get involved in other projects.  12 months ago I happened to be introduced to Mr Murray Grant of a Waikato based Trust called the Kaitiakitanga Charitable Trust.  The Trust is involved in planting native trees alongside waterways to help stabilise waterway banks and to improve the environment.  If the ecological benefits aren’t enough for you, they also use the project to promote social change.  You see they use mostly “at risk youth” to do the planting and maintenance in an effort to make a real difference in the lives of these young people.  I was asked if I would be interested in building DOC 200 predator traps for the Trust, which was now expanding its operations to include predator control.  Well you know me; I loved the idea, but I thought maybe there was a way we could make the project even better.  My idea was a shipping container!

Now I know what you are saying to yourself, a shipping container is not an idea, it’s already been done.  But my container was different.  My idea was to set the container up as a mobile workshop that would be fully equipped to make DOC 200 predator traps by the bucket load.  Just to make it even better we would use the workshop to train more young people to make the traps themselves, thereby adding some additional skills to the overall training program.  And because it was a container it meant the whole unit was totally mobile and could be moved from community to community as required.

It’s taken over 12 months for us to get to this point and a lot of help from a lot of people, including the donation of funds from many other charitable trusts.  Without Murray’s drive and belief this wouldn’t have happened, so the greater credit needs to go to him, but hey I’m taking some credit as well.  So for the first two weeks of July, this old salt maker got back into his construction gear and built something that frankly we are pretty proud of.  In the next two weeks, just before our salt season begins on 1 September, we will be down in the Waikato again training our first set of trainees the subtleties of how to build great quality predator traps. 

Evaporator update

The extreme wet weather has slowed down construction of our new evaporator program, but progress continues.  The bones of the last evaporator on the bank below the main house are in place and just completion of the lids and installation of weed matting is now required.  Once completed this unit will add another 70 salt pans to current production.

Ground works and design planning are well underway for a new retaining wall evaporator on another N-NE facing bank on the property.  Exact numbers are not quite finalised yet, but this will add potentially another 200+ pans to the mix helping us significantly toward our goal of making a Tonne of salt next year.  At this rate I’m going to need some help!

Puwheke preservation

Whenever I go away from this place one of the things I miss the most is the ability to just head down to the beach for a look.  During a short break in the weather this week Jorgi and I took a drive out to my beloved Puwheke for a look, and we were in for a pleasant surprise.  One of my personal complaints each year when I head down to the beach in summer for a water run, is that more often than not there are people in large 4 wheel drive vehicles charging up and down the dunes.  Look I get the fun aspect of this, and I know that for some people 4 wheel drive adventures are to them what golf is to me.  Its just that Puwheke for me is such a magical place it seems like sacrilege to treat it this way.  Well imagine my surprise when I drove in the carpark to see this.

Not only is it now impossible to drive from the carpark directly onto or over the dunes, but there is also a sign explaining the reasons why this decision was made.  I’m assuming it’s the Iwi, Council and the local Kaitiaki Rangers who have made this decision, but whoever it is Jorgi and I thank you for protecting our little bit of paradise.  Oh and while I’m at it, thanks for also letting me know that I’ve been misspelling Puwheke!  From now on we will adopt its correct spelling of Puwheke.

Well that’s it for our second winter.  I’ll keep you updated on evaporator progress.  Before you know it spring will be here and I’ll be knee deep again in flakey white gold.

The Pig says cheers!