RNZ: Country Life

Country Life joins nurses, patients and the surgeon onboard New Zealand's mobile surgical bus. For 15 years, the 'operating theatre on wheels' has been rolling into rural towns to deliver health care.

Dairy NZ head Dr Tim Mackle says he's happy to talk to environmental groups about cleaning up waterways, but blanket calls for fewer cows or an end to irrigation aren't the way to go. 

A series of short radio programmes produced in 1986 by Brendan Gray looking at some of New Zealand's more colourful historic hotels. Lake Ianthe Tavern in South Westland once had a mobile licence so it could move as the road was pushed further south. Publican Carol Mulholland talks about some of the hotel's traditions and holding a drinking session in the bush once a year.

The North Island is still swimming in water with regular heavy downpours, but ground temperatures are picking up. Temperatures are moving up in the South Island too, but the West Coast had a horror week of weather.

Country Life Feedback for 8 September 2017.

Full Episode for Friday September 8 2017.

James Malcolm first got the honey bug from a beekeeper who worked on his parents cropping farm near Ashburton. Now the hard working 29-year-old owns thousands of hives.

Sue Deadman has been growing vegetables for 30 years, specialising in carrots for more than 20. You can taste the difference between a sweet Ohakune carrot and those grown elsewhere in NZ, she says.

Ian Proudfoot says an agraian revolution is happening world wide and current farming models will have to change.

Bay of Plenty kiwifruit orchardists are struggling to complete winter work because of the rain, but daffodils are looking cheerful on roadsides. There's been flurry of activity on arable farms in Canterbury as growers prepare ground for planting spring crops, although everything has ground to a halt again with rain at the end of the week.

The Future is Looking Sweet, Carrot Specialists, Challenges to Primary Producers and the Regional Wrap.

Gusta Peach came to New Zealand in 1951 to be a land girl. Now 87, her story roams from a human skull on her mantlepiece to lost love with a married man and buried cars in Indonesia during WW2.

The annual Young Grower of the Year competition celebrates the talents of fruit and vegetable growers under 30. This year's competition demonstrated that the horticulture industry is in excellent hands.

Gusta Peach came to New Zealand in 1951 to be a land girl. Now 87, her story roams from a human skull on her mantlepiece to lost love with a married man and buried cars in Indonesia during WW2.

Wet conditions on Marlborough farms are making it hard to get the lambs docked and brilliant sunshine has graced much of the North Island.