Ethically Bankrupt Organisations I recently read a post on Facebook from Riverford, a large organic vegetable and fruit supplier and grower in the UK. I follow Riverford, and while being in New Zealand, I cannot buy their produce, I admire many of the initiatives they are taking, both environmentally and socially. This particular post [...]
Who Works at River Valley? I often get asked, well almost told that most of our staff would be transitory backpackers, wouldn’t they be? The person making the query is most surprised when I tell them, that no, other than the occasional wwoofer, (we call them cuzzies), all the staff are paid employees, and [...]
How Do We Grow Our Vegetables? It would be fair to say that when we started to grow more of our own vegetables, both for ourselves and our guests at the Lodge, we did not know a lot. This post is about what we have learned, but also, about what we have [...]
Like Good Cheese and Fine Wine. It All Takes Time Last week we had a meeting with an architect friend of Janey’s. Up for discussion were some ideas around changes to the main Lodge building. These proposed changes include a revamp of the kitchen and bar working areas, and also changes to the customer [...]
It Has Been An Epic Week What a difference a few days can make. Early last week I was wearing long trousers, a fleece pullover and a woollen t-shirt. Temperatures – degrees Celsius - were in the mid-teens at best. With day after day of cool temperatures, showers or rain, local farmers were battling [...]
Finding the Right Words What are we all about is a question any business at some stage asks itself. River Valley is no exception. In fact, we have asked this very question about what and why many times. While this is not the BIG meaning of life question, it is most certainly something that [...]
Is This Just A Load of Red Bull or Is It a Case of World Famous in Taihape? A traveller went rafting with us the other day. The trip he did was on the Grade 5 section of the Rangitikei River. He was probably in his mid-30s and travelling alone. Often, people travelling alone [...]
River Valley, Kiwi Experience and Relationships On Saturday night, the 12th October, Nicola, Janey, Tom and I went to the Kiwi Experience Birthday party held in Auckland. This party, which was quite a big fun affair, celebrated the 30th birthday of the company that has become New Zealand’s leading hop on, hop off, adventure [...]
It is time for another River Valley update. What a busy couple of weeks it has been! We have certainly gone up several gears in a short time. Here are a few of the highlights of what has been happening (in no particular order). A wedding. Yes, there [...]
In this time of climatic change and uncertainty, I have come across a few questions and statements that for whatever reason resonated with me – whether that resonation was to acknowledge they were true, or false, or bore further thought. Here is my take on a few of them. [...]
