An Early Season for the Duckie A good seasonal indication for the amount of rain we have had here at River Valley, and more importantly, how much there has been in the headwaters of the Rangitikei River up in the Kaimanawa ranges is the date that we roll out the duckies. Our duckie trips [...]
Living in Interesting Times We live in interesting times, of that there can be no doubt. How many other generations also believed they lived in interesting times? Most no doubt. However, the enormity of what is happening in our times is unparalleled. Yet, on a personal level, I struggle to balance what I have [...]
Economic Multipliers – The Economic Effects of Tourism in Rural Areas I have to be honest and say that sometimes I do quite like “geeky” stuff. You know, things like the latest research into all sorts of subjects, facts and figures and so on. Well one somewhat geeky subject that has always both concerned [...]
River Valley Happenings of 2019 So much of our lives, we are constantly looking forward. Planning this, building that, New Year's resolutions, this year is going to be much better than the previous year. And so on. However, how often do we spend time looking back? Treasuring the highlights, remembering the low points, and [...]
What a Load of Bollocks, Food Police and Raw Milk How much personal responsibility should I be allowed to decide what sorts of food I eat or drink? A few days ago, I read an article that got me thinking about this on news website Stuff. The article covered a series of raids by [...]
Christmas Mullings And in a heartbeat, it is Christmas yet again. Where does the year go? Beneath the retail frenzy and the never-ending messages that buying bigger gifts leads to more happiness and feelings of self-worth, there is another side to Christmas. For me, this other side is the chance to catch my breath [...]
Wellness A few days ago, I was at our local primary school (ages 5 to 13 years), Pukeokahu Primary. The reason for my visit was to watch the process whereby the school passed its assessment from Bronze to Silver Enviro School – which they did. It was great to see the enthusiasm that the [...]
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 [...]
