Jetting into Love

The wedding went ahead a year later at Kate's family farm, Woodstock, on the banks of the Waimakariri River. "We wanted to have it in the mānuka forest right on the edge of the river, but the track out there is no good, so we used the local jet boat tour company. We had three jet boats to take everyone up the river where we had everything set up. We'd been out to cut back the mānuka, but it's still in the wops so people were mostly standing," Eddie says. After the ceremony, it was back on the jet boats to the woolshed for the reception.

Even their grandmothers made it out to the spot, which was especially important because they were the couple's witnesses. "Eddie's granny, who is ninety-three, got boated out, but my granjan, who was ninety-five, had recently broken her spine so she got choppered out there. She was absolutely stoked because one of her bucket list items was to go in a helicopter," says Kate. "It was really special having them as our witnesses. It was almost a driving factor to get them out there, too - it may have just felt too hard otherwise."

Kate and Eddie's adventures together don't end with jet boats. Six months into their marriage, life in Ashburton felt a little too settled so they decided to buy Hauora Produce, a hydroponic strawberry farm in West Melton. Why strawberries? According to Eddie, with Kate's family in dairy and his own in sheep and beef, horticulture was the only thing left to dip into. "I've got a real green thumb," he says. "I've always been good at growing things - I've always had veggie gardens and things like that." Despite having no experience in the industry, Eddie quit his work on a beef farm in Ashburton and, together with their dog Prue and their cat Wayne - who, according to Kate, acts like a dog - they made the move.

"It was six weeks between when the listing went up and when we moved in, and Kate had just had surgery on her ACL so it was pretty crazy," says Eddie. Still, Kate knew their life together was always going to be farming of some sort. "Farming's in the blood, but strawberry farming was actually a childhood dream for Eddie," she says. They've just spent their first summer in the house next door to the hydroponic shed. And so far, so good: as it turns out, they managed to buy a strawberry farm just before a nationwide strawberry shortage.

"We're just pinching ourselves, it's been amazing," says Kate. "The previous owners have been incredible. They were there every day for the first ten days, and they're always just a phone call away. The whole thing would have been impossible without them there - they taught us how to grow strawberries! We learnt everything from the previous owners when we arrived - the ins and outs of packing, how to weigh strawberries, plant health, the irrigation, minerals and fertilizers. How to harvest, of course!"

"We use a controlled pest management system," explains Eddie, "which includes ordering boxes of bumblebees and releasing them into the shed for pollination. And we're spray-free, so no chemicals." Kate still works as a nurse during the week but jumps in for one day of picking on the weekend. The farm is mostly strawberries but includes some raspberries in tunnel houses on the side. For Eddie, it's been a change from the male-dominated agricultural industry. "It's funny because usually on farms it's a real father-son dynamic, so I'm used to working with men," he says. "But it's different in horticulture, there are way more women. So now I'm working with Kate, Kate's mum and my mum."

"Yeah, our mums, Andrea and Helen, both come and pick," says Kate. "They'll be in there, nattering away together, they just love it." The couple had their hands full until the season ended in April, but there's always energy to plan for the future. "We're thinking about expanding on our raspberry production," says Kate. "And we've got that van to kit out," Eddie adds, referring to their work vehicle, which will no doubt double as an adventure wagon.