Hello & Welcome! I am Brian O'Brien and my wife  Lyn and I live on a small farm in a rural area called Waipu situated in the North Island of New Zealand. We were Commercial growers specialising in Capsicums, ( Bell peppers) for 15 years, grown under cover in large polythene tunnel houses and we also grow a range of other outdoor vegetables including tomatoes, beans, courgettes, pumpkins, corn, squash, capsicums and garlic. We have a small herd of Friesian heifers which we run as dry stock and we are almost self sufficient in most areas. Although we are not organic growers we understand the workings of organic gardening and we limit our spraying where we can and try to utilise good gardening practices. Our Capsicums were shipped to Auckland City and all other product was grown for local consumption. Locals arrived during the Summer months and picked their own tomatoes in bulk. (One year we planted 6000 tomato plants)

In 2004 we purchased another business Sonshine Print and we publish a local Trades & Services fortnightly print edition called the bream bay trader, which is delivered each fortnight in the Bream Bay area. You can visit our other website here

The beauty of owning a desk top publishing business means we can still work from home and enjoy the "Good Life" in rural NZ. It's lots of fun and we meet some really nice people

My wife was born and raised in the Waipu Cove area and I was born and raised in Parnell in the central Auckland City and we came to live inWaipu in 1991. We don't miss the hassles and fast pace of city life, although we do miss day to day contact with two older children who live and work in Auckland with two Grandchildren. I have one son and his family  with our other three grandchildren  who live in Queensland, Australia  and most of our other family members live in New Zealand. 

Waipu is a popular tourist destination and is about a 1 1/2 hour drive North from Auckland City and 1/2 hour from Whangarei. New extensions to the main highway will reduce travelling time to about an hour from Auckland and this has seen a huge increase in enquiries for coastal properties in the region. Waipu Cove is a wonderful ocean beach and has a camping ground and many other great amenities for tourists. It is also famous for the Scottish/Nova Scotian immigrants who settled in the area in the 1850s and is home to the annual Waipu Highland Games, held on January 1st every year since 1871.

On the Farm

Our small herd consists of up to15x Friesian heifers that we buy in each year as weaners and grow on before selling them the following Spring. Over the years we have had other breeds including Belted Galloway, Murray Greys and Herefords, but the Friesians seem to be the best breed for our situation. They are quick growing, have a lovely temperament and are easy to handle on a small block.

We have a good orchard with Macadamias, avocados, plums, peaches, pears, apples, feijoas, bananas, persimmon, babaco, passion fruit, tamarillos, oranges, lemons, limes, boysenberries, strawberries and a good vegetable garden. Asparagus grows well here, although we have lost over 30 Chestnut trees to an extremely heavy flooding by the Ahuroa river, which is on our boundary. We recently found three Chestnut trees that  were actually Walnut trees!

 Here are a few good links for farmers and Growers:

Agriculture Research

NZ Weather

NZ Farming links

Buy NZ Native tree seeds

The Almanac Weekly Tips