Claudina Martin loves to handle the grapes she is picking in this Bayview vineyard.

SINCE THE DAYS OF NOAH

Photography by RUSSELL ORR

Visiting Tangoio in early autumn, we found a rush and bustle familiar to a Maori community when a special spurt of work is necessary. This is the time of the pea harvest, the hop picking and the wine making. Seasonal workers, especially the women, back from shearing, burst into activity for some weeks before winter, the quieter season, puts an end to the attractive outside occupations.

Ever since the days of Noah, there is something especially attractive about vineyards and vineries. Quite a large number of Maori women and some men, help each year with the picking of the grapes and over the last few years, with new firms starting out, the Hawkes Bay wine industry has grown quite large, with over 400 acres of vines. A number of young Maori men have permanent positions in wineries looking after the delicate fermenting and maturing operations.

So far we have not heard of many Maoris successfully growing wine grapes. Both in the far North and along the East Coast and Bay of Plenty, there is a good deal of Maori land classified as suitable for wine growing, but the Department of Agriculture considers that the equipment needed to make really successful wine is too elaborate for the man with a few acres. Growers would have to sell their grapes to well-established wineries.

The first New Zealand wine was grown at Waitangi by James Busby when he was British Resident (1833–1840). Although his main claim to fame will remain his drafting of the Treaty of Waitangi, his passion for grapevines which he imported from France and Spain, is remembered by the wine industry both here and in Australia.

New Zealand makes about 600,000 gallons of wine annually from about 1000 acres of vines.