Latest news with #SouthlandGirls'HighSchool
Otago Daily Times
6 days ago
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Camp opens eyes to agribusiness
An Invercargill schoolgirl was never serious about a career in agribusiness until joining 25 students in an educational camp in Canterbury. Southland Girls' High School's Keely Gorrie attended a three-day live-in programme with the other year-12 students from around the country to learn about career pathways in the food production industry. The Farm2Future educational camp, funded by Rabobank, took them to a range of agribusiness operations across the region. They visited Rakaia Island Dairy Farm, Willisden Farms, Original Foods Baking Company, NZ Merino, PGG Wrightson, Farm Source and Foodstuffs. For Miss Gorrie, who lives with her family in Invercargill, the camp was an eye-opener for a possible career direction. She said the business tours were valuable for figuring out what she wanted to do in her working life. "I'm not off a farm, but I have done a bit of work and looked into the animal — more practical — side of farming, but they had a bunch of information about the agribusiness side of things so it was really interesting to see and have a look." At this stage another year of school lies ahead of Miss Gorrie before she commits to either studying or joining the workforce. "I'm definitely thinking about a bunch of things as I enjoy the on-farm working with the animals, but like I say, seeing all of these different career paths in agribusiness is definitely something to consider." The programme featured a panel discussion of young agribusiness professionals talking about their roles in the sector. This year's camp intake was selected from more than 90 year-12 students who put their names forward. Miss Gorrie said she particularly liked learning about Original Foods Baking Company and Foodstuffs at tours to their operations. "Original Foods had a quiz which was fun and the lady who we were mainly speaking to talked about how she started on the line and worked her way up and got connections through that, so I thought that was kind of cool." Watching the manufacturing of donuts and slab cakes and learning about the process of food ingredients produced from farms before that point was educational, she said. She was selected after making a video explaining why she would be a good candidate for the camp and writing a cover note about herself. "One of the things I really liked about it was all the people running it and all the people we visited at the different businesses were all very open to the fact you actually don't have to be off a farm to be involved in the agriculture sector. And I thought that was really quite inclusive." The programme was organised by Lincoln University students on a Future Leader Scholarship for school-leavers showing high academic and leadership promise. Rabobank Upper South Island client council member Ed Tapp said the students' camp experiences would give them valuable insights into how food travelled from farms to the table. He said the aim was to introduce them to the opportunities and variety of career paths available in the food and agriculture sector. Many of the students had come from farming backgrounds, but more than half of them had grown up in urban areas with little to no exposure to agriculture. "There's a real disconnect between urban youth and knowledge of the opportunities within the agricultural industry. And it's crucial that we continue efforts to strengthen the urban-rural relationship."
Otago Daily Times
6 days ago
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
Goals big enough to be laughed at
Rural professional;, sheep farmer, mother and endurance race competitor — life is just busy enough for Southlander Keely Buckingham. She talks to Shawn McAvinue about her involvement in the sheep, beef and dairy industries and why she tells people about her big goals. Southland rural professional, sheep farmer and mother Keely Buckingham's main motivation is to enjoy whatever she sets out to do. Although she does set big goals and tells people about them. "If people don't laugh at your goals, they're not big enough. I tell that to farmers all the time," Mrs Buckingham said, talking to Southern Rural Life from Wellington Airport, waiting to fly home after attending a Beef + Lamb conference in the Capital last week. She has been a Beef + Lamb Southern South Island farmer councillor for about two years. Her role on the council was as a sheep farmer and a dairy farmer representative. She works part-time as the DairyNZ Eastern Southland area manager and was raised on dairy farms across New Zealand. Mrs Buckingham (nee Sullivan) was age 3 when her father began working on dairy farms. He progressed from a farm assistant in Hamilton, to lower order sharemilking in Rotorua and then 50:50 sharemilking about 300 cows near Te Awamutu. She was age 12 when her family moved south to 50:50 sharemilk 600 cows in Winton for 12 years from 2008. "They wanted to scale up and the jobs were in Southland." She holds great memories of moving to Southland. "My best friend at the time was sad I was leaving, but I was pretty excited to go somewhere else and meet some new people." There was no other place she would rather live than Southland. "We have an amazing community. We couldn't come from a better place." As a fundraiser, her husband, Henry Buckingham, will attempt to play 200 holes of golf in 12 hours this Friday. The funds will help pay for their only child, son Hudson, 1, to get physical therapy in Rotorua next month. A Givealittle page has raised more than $34,000. Mrs Buckingham's education includes five years at Southland Girls' High School and obtaining a Bachelor of Commerce in agriculture from Lincoln University. After graduating, she and Mr Buckingham went on a 19-month OE, doing a repeat cycle of working for two months, including harvesting crops in the United Kingdom, and then travelling for a month. The pair returned to New Zealand in December 2018. Before returning home, she had a phone interview for a job in a team working on the Mycoplasma Bovis response in New Zealand. She got the job in the DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb NZ compensation assistance team and started in the role three days after returning to New Zealand. The cattle disease was first detected in New Zealand a year earlier. Farmers who had cattle euthanised as part of the response could call the team for assistance with the compensation process. "When people wanted to join the service, I was the first person they spoke to. It was a baptism by fire for my first proper career job, just out of uni." The role of the team was to help farmers, which made it a nice part of the response to be involved with. She finished up in the team in April 2020 to start working in her current role at DairyNZ. She enjoyed her current role as she was working with dairy farmers who love their jobs, and helps them be sustainable and profitable. "My why is being able to help farmers keep farming." After returning home, Mr Buckingham got work as a stock manager on a sheep farm in Fortrose, on the far western edge of the Catlins, from May 2019. The Buckinghams have since entered an equity partnership with the farm owner and own half of the livestock and plant. An idea of one day entering an equity partnership in a dairy farm had never been discussed, she said. "Henry is passionate about sheep farming. He would never jump the fence into dairy." The 290ha-effective sheep farm, with 2800 ewes and 700 hoggets, was intensive, low-cost and profitable, even when sheep prices were down. Changes her husband had made on the farm include introducing a Wiltshire ram to put over the composite Tefrom ewes. As the farm employed no permanent staff, the aim was for the wool shedding genetics to make their farm system simpler by reducing duties, such as crutching, while remaining productive. "We aren't sending away too many lambs that aren't under 19kg on the hook." She felt privileged to have a career as a rural professional, off farm and different to her husband. "I love that it brings a different conversation home." Hudson was born in November 2023. On maternity leave, she found time, thanks to family support, to train and complete her second Coast to Coast in February this year. Both times she competed in the event's two-day individual category. The first time in 2020, the run section did not go as planned, so she entered again for redemption. She did not set a new personal best this year due to a rudder snapping on her kayak. Her training for the Coast to Coast included swimming at Challenge Wānaka, less than three months after giving birth to Hudson. "I needed something for me, to keep cracking on." During the past summer, Mr Buckingham completed an Ironman triathlon. Both of them training and completing at endurance events around the same time was hectic and would not be repeated. She had signed up for a half marathon in Auckland in November this year. The plan was to beat her personal best time for the distance of 1hr 43min, which she set seven years ago. "That will keep me busy."
Otago Daily Times
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Students leave hearts on stage
Southland Girls' High School students perform on the Civic Theatre stage for Showquest Southland. PHOTO: CHONTALLE MUSSON Hundreds of South Island secondary school students brought their creative talents to the Deep South on Monday night. The students put on performances that blended art, music, dance, drama, culture and technology for Showquest Southland at the Civic Theatre in Invercargill. A dozen school groups from across Otago and Southland took part in Aotearoa's largest student performing arts competition. Showquest producer Kelsey Moller said the standard of the performances lifted every year and she was impressed with the issues young people brought to the stage. "It was all really student-led. [A] really diverse expression of creativity. "Tonight, we've had performances about AI, about our wāhine toa and disconnecting from social media. "It's a really strong nationwide theme that we've seen." She had anticipated a great show because of the way the 600 students had supported each other throughout the day. "This was a really beautiful opportunity for adults and teachers and whānau to come along and see the students take to the stage and show the adults in their lives what was important to them." A group from Wanaka's Mount Aspiring College were named the winner , taking out the open section for their "Wāhine Toa" dance piece celebrating significant women from across Aotearoa's history. James Hargest College snapped up the junior section for their performance themed, "Best First Day Ever!". Showquest Southland judge Travis Luke said the concepts felt very relevant — and clearly focused on where we were at in society. Both colleges will go on to the Showquest digital national final, which will be livestreamed on July 30.
Otago Daily Times
08-06-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Southern tourism pioneer celebrates 100th birthday
The first lady of Queenstown tourism celebrated her 100th birthday, surrounded by family and friends, in the resort on Saturday. Olive, Lady Hutchins (nee Simpson) celebrated the milestone at Queenstown Country Club retirement village, where she lives, with her large family — including some of her 18 grandchildren and 31 great-grandchildren — and some old friends. Cards from King Charles and Queen Camilla and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon were proudly on display. To acknowledge her birthday, RealNZ, begun by the Hutchins family, ran a "kids go free" weekend for all its experiences, and took a group of local children to Walter Peak on Saturday afternoon to plant a grove of native plants in Lady Hutchins' honour. Born in Invercargill in 1925, the youngest of three children of farming parents from Myross Bush, Lady Hutchins went to the local primary school and then Southland Girls' High School before taking a job in the office at Invercargill's H&J Smiths. In 1945, when she was 20, she met her future husband, Les, at a dance in Invercargill, shortly after he returned from the war. The couple married at Invercargill's First Church in 1948 and had four children. Les ran a furniture business in Invercargill but left that under management in 1954 after buying Les Murrell's estate, which included a Manapouri-based "walking tour", traversing the Wilmot Pass, into Doubtful Sound, and back, and two boats, The Constance and The Pilgrim . Turning that into the Manapouri-Doubtful Sound Tourist Company, the family initially spent summers in Manapouri but made it their permanent home in 1956. Mrs Hodges said her mother was "a typical 1950s woman — she just followed Dad", and while she was kept busy raising the family, she would also cater for the boats and man the radio when Les was away. The couple became central voices in the Save Manapouri campaign, launched in response to the government's announcement it intended to raise lakes Manapouri and Te Anau for hydro-electric development. The couple's business, renamed Fiordland Travel (now RealNZ), grew when they bought the TSS Earnslaw in 1969 — it was to have been scrapped the year prior — and spent years restoring the 1912 Edwardian twin-screw steamer, ensuring the "Lady of the Lake" was preserved for future generations. In 1970 Fiordland Travel launched Milford Sound cruises and in 1991 it secured a lease at Queenstown's Walter Peak High Country Farm, opening up a slice of rural New Zealand to visitors. It was around that time Les handed the reins of the company to son Bryan. In the early 1990s the couple moved to Kelvin Heights. Les was named a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2002, the year before his death. Bryan said that was bestowed during a period when "Sir" and "Dame" weren't used. However, after the titles were reintroduced, in 2009, the late Sir Eion Edgar "pestered" their mother to take the title of Lady. Mrs Maslin said her mother "loved it — she was very proud of Dad [and] we thought it would be very cool for all the grandkids." Lady Hutchins, a keen Presbyterian church-goer, set up a charitable trust at least 20 years ago to help underprivileged people. The trust continues and is now run by some of her family. Her family said she also adored gardening and was even known to pop over to Walter Peak with friends on occasion to help out the gardener there. She loved bridge, croquet, card games and played a bit of golf, and had been somewhat notorious for her lead foot while driving. Well-read and a member of the National Party, she was also not afraid to share her views, particularly with politicians and her family. Mrs Maslin said her mother was "never backwards in coming forward with her children ... if she was disappointed, you knew". "She had spunk." Lady Hutchins remained in Kelvin Heights until about six years ago, when she moved into the retirement village.
