Aupōuri avocado consents: 'Everyone's working. That never used to happen'

Health and safety officer Chelsea Brown, from Te Kao/Te Hapua, checks young frost-bagged avocado trees at Mapua Orchard. Photo / Peter de Graaf

The expansion of horticulture — especially avocado growing — has transformed employment in New Zealand's northernmost towns.

Chelsea Brown, who works at Mapua Orchard near Pukenui, said jobs used to be rare and unemployment high north of Kaitaia.

Now, however, people living in 22 out of 25 homes in her papakāinga at Te Kao were working in well-paid horticulture jobs.

The situation was similar in Te Hapua, her home town and New Zealand's northernmost settlement.

Brown, who previously worked as a kohanga reo teacher and a NorthTec study supervisor, started as an orchard worker three years ago.

At first she planted trees and installed irrigation systems but, after getting her ticket through a course at her marae in Te Hapua, she became the health and safety officer responsible for the 205ha Mapua Orchard.

Like the other permanent staff Brown is also studying towards horticulture qualifications while she works.

The best thing about the job was that she could stay home instead of having to move to Auckland for work.

''I grew up in Auckland and I don't want to go back. Here you get a good job and good pay in a good atmosphere — we're a big whānau here — and it's not far from home,'' she said.

''I live in Te Kao, in the papakāinga. There's 25 houses there and probably just three that don't have jobs. All those houses are full and almost everyone's working. That never used to happen.''

Brown said the jobs boom was also good for the next generation. Children of working families had greater opportunities and didn't have to go without, while their parents could save money and look to the future instead of ''living pay cheque to pay cheque''.

''In Te Hapua there's a different culture now. People are able to do things, crime has dropped, thieving has stopped. It's great for the whole of the North.''