We are right on the coast, so every day you look out the window, the sea’s doing something different or the light’s different – there’s always something changing. It takes me exactly twelve minutes to drive from here to the store in Tuatapere – I’ve got everything right down to the last thirty seconds! Before I joined PGG Wrightson, I was a teacher aide at Riverton Primary School and that was pretty fun. Then my children got older and more independent, and a temporary opportunity came up at the Tuatapere store – the manager was going on maternity leave. The location, and PGG Wrightson’s passion for farming – it just seemed to align for us. Then the former manager elected not to come back, and so it all just fell in place really.
Every day in the store is different – we’re looking at what the weather’s doing, and what our farmers require – like right now is our seed and chemical time of year. So it’s really important that we have all that ready to go – as soon as the weather comes right, everybody will be planting seed for next year, renewing grasses and getting advice from our technical field representatives. The reps are out on people’s farms, actually seeing what the farmers are seeing, every day. If they need to, they’ll pull in another tier of experience, whether that’s an agronomist or chemical guru or whoever else. The bottom line is they want to help our clients any way they can.
We also get a lot of people coming into the store and they love to have a chat and a catch-up. We know everyone – mums are coming in with their kids after school, so you get to know the kids, too. The challenge for our community is our isolation, but we’ve got so many people who still have that number-eight-wire ingenuity, so if the power’s out, we can hook up a generator, or we can help the neighbour, or we can check on someone down the road who needs help, or just call in for a coffee.
Once you have children, your own sporting things get put aside a little bit. I am a competitive person, and I like to move and I like to include others in a fitness journey, whatever that looks like. Driving an hour to Invercargill and back to do an hour’s workout at a gym, it just doesn’t work. I really started the fitness classes to get an idea of who’s out in the community – you sort of take it on, build it, and they will come. I had a bit of gear from lockdown days – a couple of barbells and things like that. I approached the Orepuki Community Promotions group and asked if I could use the community hall, and they said, “Absolutely, we want the hall used.”
So, I unloaded all my stuff down there, and we advertised in our little Western Wanderer newsletter. We had a big mix of young and old turn up – including lots of people with movement challenges who can’t hold their arms above their head, or they can’t run, things like that. We take a workout and we strip it down to suit each person and their individual movements. We have regular classes at the Orepuki community hall, Monday and Friday mornings, 6am – ouch – and then again at 5.30pm. On Wednesday mornings, to try and capture some different people, we hold 6am classes at the Waiau Area School gym. And it doesn’t really become about the exercise. It’s actually just getting together.
It’s amazing seeing the women progress, especially the older women – just instilling confidence in them that they can do these things, and they can keep up with these young girls as well, and they can reach up high onto the shelf and get that tin of food or whatever they need. Or they can bend down and they can lift something – they’ve been given the tools to know how to lift properly. And to me, it’s not just about their bodies, it’s their mental health as well. A lot of these ladies are super-capable, but a little bit nervous about change or doing something that’s a little bit out of their comfort zone. They know they need to be fit, and they know they need to move – so it’s teaching them and giving them those tools and confidence so they can live in their own homes for longer and be healthier.
The younger girls are probably early twenties, then people like me in our late forties, and then we’ve got women in their sixties and seventies as well. The other day we were doing some weightlifting – because we want to build bone density – and we ran out of weights. So that’s how much they have progressed. These women are amazing – they’re strong, independent and caring. Southlanders are characters and they love to give each other a little bit of banter all the time, but there’s a lot of love there. And at the end of the sessions, it’s all a big high five and “Well done, hey, you lifted great,” or “I nearly got you on that run,” – there’s a little bit of competitiveness there. Sometimes I have to put my teacher aide hat on and say, “Well, if you’re talking, you’re not working hard enough.” And there’s a lot of swearing – these young girls swear a lot! I’m so grateful to these women for turning up – because if I don’t get out of bed for somebody else, I’m going to stay in bed. I appreciate that they come along first thing in the morning, sleep still in their eyes, hair not done, shirts on backwards, whatever. We’ve all turned up for each other. That’s pretty cool.
PGG Wrightson has a rich heritage supporting New Zealand farmers and growers in some of the most isolated corners of the country. PGG Wrightson supported the production of this story. Visit store.pggwrightson.co.nz.
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