What motivated you to buy into a timber business?
My partner Hamish runs the sawmilling side of things and he and I are planting exotic trees on our own land that will produce some really outstanding timber.
So helping grow the demand for NZ-grown quality timber is a good move. Plus, I wanted to invest money locally and in something that would provide satisfying, long-term jobs.
Richard Thompson, who founded MacBlack Timber, was one of the first people I met when I arrived in Whanganui in 2010.
I was incredibly impressed by the forest of macrocarpa and Australian blackwood that he and his wife Laurel planted back in the 90s.
From them, I heard about continuous canopy forestry and I found that concept compelling.
What does that mean?
It means the forest will never be clear-felled. Only individual trees or a small area will get harvested at any one time.
The forest remains; as trees are removed, new ones grow up to take their place. It is genuinely sustainable forestry, you're never harvesting more than the rate of natural growth.
I didn't know such a thing existed. And once I knew, I really wanted to plant my own forest.
How has Covid affected the business?
Ah, it's a stressful time to be running a small business. But the guys on our team are awesome. When Omicron hit, we all got together in the machine shed and brainstormed how we could protect each other and the business and put that plan into action immediately.
I'm really proud of them. We ship around the country and it's been important to be selling to customers right around the motu.
What's that shiny new machine?
It's a WoodMizer resaw that we've been waiting for from the US for a year. Along with a four-sider, it means we can do a lot of our own processing, which previously we had to outsource. We can turn boards into products, for example, T&G flooring or weatherboards.
What sort of trees have you planted?
We're lucky to have found friends and mentors in the NZ Farm Forestry Association; the more we learn, the more complex our planting plan gets.
We've planted cypress, blackwoods, redwoods and poplar — but also a trial of oaks (for timber) and various eucalypts, including ones that are naturally ground durable.
They are going to make amazing building materials.
No natives?
We're busy restoring over a hectare of ephemeral wetland and protecting some regenerated bush from old man's beard.
We've planted several thousand assorted natives already, many more this year, and we'll keep at it. We're growing a lot ourselves.
A few kahikatea and totara will get registered so that a long time from now someone has the option to harvest them and use the timber.
You're building a house?
Yeah, a little house that's turned into a big project. Small but ambitious: we're aiming for Passive House certification, which means it will be a really healthy and comfortable environment and need hardly any power for heating or cooling.
That's hi-tech, but we're using old-school building materials: straw bale, light earth infill walls, and earth plasters.
The next milestone is the roof going on. Once we're into the drier weather there will be some great work parties, raising the bales [building the straw bale walls] and building with light earth.
When you get time off, what are your favourite things to do in Whanganui?
A Saturday morning trip to the River Trader Markets is a necessary errand because that's where we buy our fresh food. But it's no chore. I love it, it's a great place to catch up with people.
This will sound nerdy, but I realised during the lockdowns that the Davis Library is one of my favourite places. I missed it while it was closed. The librarians have done a fantastic job of keeping services available in modified forms during subsequent lockdowns and restrictions.
It's a pleasant place to meet people and the librarians are a helpful bunch of really nice people.
Now that international travel is opening up, is there a place in the world you would most like to visit and why would you go there?
I didn't replace my passport when it expired a few years back, I really thought I might be done with overseas travel.
That was a combination of the carbon emissions associated with flying and just how unsettled the world is. But a mate called me recently and said, how about you and me go to Nepal and Bhutan next winter? Just out of the blue.
That would be a religious pilgrimage; there are a lot of very holy Buddhist sites in those countries, neither of which I've ever visited. So that is on the cards.
We'll see how the world looks in 10 months. I've spent a lot of my life overseas and am still regularly deeply grateful to be back living in New Zealand so I feel no itch to leave.
There is a lot of this country I haven't seen yet.
