Experience the ultimate in luxury train travel on Rovos Rail in Southern Africa
When it debuted in the late 1980s, Rovos Rail was the first train company to outfit its carriages with posh amenities. More than 40 years later, Bonnie Pop jumps aboard to experience the bucket list journey
Nothing quite prepares you for your first luxury train experience. It's as close as
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Otago Daily Times
29-07-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Young grower relishing NZ opportunities
A year of backpacking led South African man Steven Rink to finding a new home managing vegetable growing in Canterbury. Tim Cronshaw reports. After graduating with a degree in conservation and ecology from the University of Stellenbosch, Steven Rink headed off to New Zealand in 2019. The born and raised Capetonian from South Africa visited the sights of the country, then ended up helping out at a wholesale nursery operation in Tauranga, overseeing the propagation and irrigation departments. Initially the plan was to spend 11 months on the road — until he got stuck in lockdown when Covid-19 arrived in 2020. When this was lifted his travels took him on another adventure to the Marlborough Sounds. "While travelling I met a friend who was working at Lochmara Lodge and I ended up working a summer out there doing odd jobs, living and working there and doing the backpacking thing. At that stage I was going back to South Africa for my brother's wedding and wasn't sure whether I would be coming back to New Zealand." Unsure of his next move, he opted to gain more work experience, and applied for a job at Oakley's Premium Fresh Vegetables, a family business growing and packing fresh vegetables at Canterbury's Southbridge, "I was in the middle of Marlborough Sounds on a jetty hoping I didn't catch a fish when they called back to tell me I got the job. I took a punt and really loved it and four years later I'm still here and fully invested." His wider family has a close connection with farming, with his grandparents and uncles still on farms in Zimbabwe when his parents headed for Cape Town. "Throughout my childhood we would go back there to visit my grandparents' farm and the uncles, and in the early 2000s when that all went horrible most of the uncles went to Australia and some went up to Zambia and one went to South Africa, and he had a big farm there. So every school holiday my mum would ship us there and we would spend the holidays on the farms. "So my greater family is very much a farming family, but I didn't grow up on a farm driving tractors. I know this sounds silly, but you can almost feel it in the blood and tend to pick things up and understand things a bit quicker than someone who doesn't have that background." Initially, Mr Rink, 30, was brought in as a production assistant at Oakley's, growing and tending vegetables such as broccoli, pumpkin and beetroot. The business is known for its potatoes, with its own Golden Gourmet brand, and also grows rotational cover crops, and he immersed himself in the new learning experience. Mr Rink said he was lucky to work under manager Lucas Rossi. "He invested a lot of time and energy in training me and had ridiculous amounts of patience and really allowed me to grow and learn and get that experience. I worked at Oakley's for three months and went back to South Africa for my brother's wedding and that's when we went into that second lockdown and I ended up having four months back in South Africa waiting for them to lift the bubble. "A huge factor coming back was that opportunity, as I've never worked for a company that invested so much in their staff in training. That ability to grow at Oakley's is why I'm still there. It's a really great company with a great culture." Vegetable growing's multi-faceted nature — with no day the same as the next — and the many challenges it invariably throws up appealed to him. "You might have done something one way for 10 times, and at the 11th time have to do something completely different, and need to be able to adapt and change and improvise and overcome. No two challenges are ever the same." Last year he was elevated in the business to become the production manager. Over winter a typical day might see him behind the laptop planning crop rotations, carrying out maintenance in the workshop and gearing up for the season. When spring comes along his team of six staff are hard at work planting and cultivating to get crops in the ground. Entering early summer is a maintenance phase to make sure crops have enough moisture and fertiliser, and the spraying programme is on schedule. Then through March and April harvesting goes "24/7" as much as the season allows. A previously wet season was tricky, but the seasonal changes are part and parcel of growing. "I think a lot of people don't see and appreciate what goes on during the spring and summer months. Sometimes they might only see the winter work which is quiet with shorter days, but then in summer they forget you are up before the sun and working long after it's down. It changes a fair bit and my role has also changed." Working more in the office comes with the territory now, and his team does much of the grunt work, but he never asks them to do a job he has not done himself — from hand-picking broccoli to every other task. The day before winning the Canterbury Young Grower regional competition, he was working on a potato grader. "I'm probably happiest in the tractor to be honest, as I can crack on and do a job rather than moving all the pieces. "I think every farmer will tell you that they would pick a tractor seat over an office seat any day of the week." Aside from the career opportunities, a Kiwi partner is another reason keeping him in New Zealand. Then there is the allure of living in the South Island and going from work to a skifield on a winter weekend or hiking in the summer. At first glance it might appear vegetable growing has taken him away from his university qualifications, but he sees this differently. The degree was largely focused on sustainability and looking after the environment with part of it conserving species in the wild. "But we could pick and choose our majors and I majored in soil science because I always knew I wanted to be growing things whether in a nursery or in propagation, farming or in an orchard. "I didn't want to do straight agronomy and commercial farming and, yes, that's what I am doing now, but I also love that [Oakley's owner] Robin Oakley is very open to new initiatives and doing things better in sustainability. "So we use a lot of tech for our soil moisture and do heaps of soil testing and leaf testing to make sure we are doing the best for our crop as a business, but also for the environment in terms of leaching and excess fertiliser. "We are a company that is sustainably focused and that's what gives me that kick from the conservation and ecology side that we do a lot of work to get our soils and microbes right." As the Canterbury Young Grower titleholder, Mr Rink will contest the national competition against six other regional winners in Christchurch in September. That will arrive "slap-bang" in the planting season, so he is about to start his homework for the final, including knocking on the doors of industry people to get an insight into avocado, kiwifruit and other horticulture growing outside of his expertise. "I always say I'm definitely not the smartest in the room but I know who to ask to get that information. That's my key strength, on how to identify a problem and find out how to solve it." The Canterbury competition was the first to be held in the region for several years. 'The modules were a mixture of the basics that we all need to know and also stuff that really stretched us. I had thought it would be nerve racking but it turned out to be really enjoyable.' Runner up was Brooke Chambers, who is part of the operational team for Farm Right's orchard development in Canterbury. Beyond the immediate future of the competition, Mr Rink has mentally committed to giving his all to Oakley's for the next few years. When he first started as production manager it seemed overwhelming but he's grown into the job, wanting to continue learning all he can about vegetable growing. Where that would take him next, he was unsure, but working for himself one day was on the to-do list.
NZ Herald
24-06-2025
- NZ Herald
Experience the ultimate in luxury train travel on Rovos Rail in Southern Africa
With no Wi-Fi, fine South African wines and stunning off-train excursions, Rovos Rail's journey is a step back in time in the best way. Photo / Rovos Rail When it debuted in the late 1980s, Rovos Rail was the first train company to outfit its carriages with posh amenities. More than 40 years later, Bonnie Pop jumps aboard to experience the bucket list journey Nothing quite prepares you for your first luxury train experience. It's as close as
Otago Daily Times
12-06-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Op shops a trove of treasures
Proving that one person's trash is another person's treasure, a Dunedin woman has furnished her home with free and thrifted pieces. Kim Dungey reports. "It's kind of crazy," Anna Easton reveals. "My husband will be walking down the street and someone will yell out to him, 'I love your new bed sheets'." The comments might be a little personal but they're par for the course when thousands of people follow your wife's every decorating move on social media. Dubbed the "op shop queen", Mrs Easton has styled almost their entire home with things bought from second-hand stores and op shops or found on the side of the road. After two decades travelling the world, she returned to New Zealand with her South African-born husband, Sean, and their daughter, Frankie, in 2020. The family initially lived in Mrs Easton's home town of Oamaru, before moving to Dunedin. While much of their furniture is still in storage, the Halfway Bush house they are renting is filled with colourful and eclectic objects. "Everything from our couches to our stereo, our Persian rugs, our artwork, fabrics and clothing, it's all got a story," she says, pointing out the gold velvet curtains in the living room that cost just $30. "I was so excited when I saw them, I threw them over my shoulder. I'm just like, 'this is insane'." There are also vintage bowls and cutlery, candlewick bedspreads, retro lampshades, a Marantz stereo "that plays as beautifully as it did in the 1970s" and old-school speakers, some of which serve as bedside tables and coffee tables. The recycling enthusiast says she gravitates to certain colours, such as mustard, turquoise, orange and yellow, and describes her style as "eclectic colourful textures, bold boho art, modern retro and totally random". "I haven't done it for fun recently, just because we've been moving so much, but when I do go to op shops to browse, my favourite thing to look at first is the homewares/bric-a-brac section — that's my guilty pleasure," she says, picking up two mid-century "genie" bottles she found at the Oamaru Trading Post and "had to have". The items they have found on the side of the road have blown them away, she adds. In Melbourne, where they lived for a decade, they drove around on the days kerbside hard rubbish collections were held, dragging home colourful rugs, wooden pews and a green-fringed lampshade. Frankie's Scandinavian-style day bed was found around the corner from their home, as mother and daughter were returning from the supermarket. "I saw it and was like, 'oh my God'. The week before, I'd found a [flatbed] trolley on the side of the road so I got the trolley, put the bed on it and wheeled it the two blocks home." Working as a freelance photographer in Victoria's capital took Mrs Easton to suburbs she would not usually visit. "I'd see all these op shops and it was really exciting so I started to make a list of them to remember the best places to buy rugs or furniture or curtains. Then I started photographing them and making albums on my computer." That led to a Facebook page and website, She Hunts Op Shops, where she writes about op shops, photography, family life, outdoor adventures and "owning a poo business" — the couple bought a Portaloo and septic tank business, Awamoa Sanitation, in 2020 and still commute to Oamaru to run it. She also recently recorded a podcast for the Otepoti Waste Minimisation Network (Rethinking Waste on Spotify) and is planning a guide on Dunedin's op shops to complement the Wanaka, Queenstown and Oamaru ones already on her website. "We love living in Dunedin. It's the funkiest city in the whole world ... and the op shops here are dripping with treasure." The secrets to successful op-shopping include visiting them regularly and being patient, she says. Sometimes she has time to browse but usually she is looking for a specific everyday item. "I could go to six op shops in a day but when I go, I'm in and out like a fly." "For instance, if we need more screws or tools for our business, I'll go to specific op shops that I know sell hardware and I'll buy them there ... And if we really need some sheets, I'll only look at sheets. I won't look at anything else." Having moved seven times in the past four years, she also knows something about making a rental more homely. The first thing they do is put their own curtains up, she says, adding that replacing the "corporate grey" curtains in their rental immediately changed the look of the whole house and that she collects second-hand curtain accessories, such as wire, rings and hooks, "because buying that stuff new is just so expensive". Then they add their own lampshades, rugs and artwork, placing any existing ones into storage until they leave. While she will buy new items as a "last resort", op shop purchases are usually cheaper, more sustainable and better quality, she says. It's also about nostalgia and the thrill of not knowing what she will find. Recently, she went to a charity shop to buy a mop, also leaving with a $3 disco ball. "It's brought me so much joy. It's in my bedroom and when the sun hits it, that room sparkles like it's Studio 54." Frankie, 9, has inherited her parents' thrifty ways. "She's into buying things second-hand on Facebook Marketplace, which I think is really awesome. She's happy to wait for the best deal as opposed to wanting everything now. And she looks after her toys so she can sell them on afterwards ... " At the same age, Mrs Easton also had an eye for a bargain. "My friends and I built a tree hut and I chose the location specially to be above the dump so I could see what people were throwing out," she says. "When they left, I would drag the furniture up the hill. I decorated our entire tree hut with stuff from that rubbish tip."
