Photo: Carol Stiles
Suzanne Hall is adamant about one thing when it comes to the 240-hectare Ngawha Innovation and Enterprise Park. It shouldn't look like an industrial park.
The development aims to bring together established businesses, startups, education providers, and people working in research and development to fuel the Northland region's economy.
The 240 ha multi-million dollar development is currently under construction and will be the base for education providers, business start-ups and established businesses.
In front of her are rows of tunnel houses for the Kaikohe Berryfruit growing operation.
Suzanne Hall and Nicki Paget. Photo: Carol Stiles
"We didn't want it to be an industrial park. We wanted it to be something different," Hall said.
"We wanted it to actually feel like parkland. And we've worked closely with local hapu collecting seeds and things and Corrections have been growing a lot of those plants. We kept all the pockets of wetlands.
"And we have focused on a lot of the things that will make it feel quite different for the people who are working here."
Originally the land was owned by Top Energy and they looked at it as an industrial park. But there was debate over what would most benefit the community. The owners plumped for something different.
"Northland needs something different; we've got a lot of primary industry here. All the processing goes out of the region. So we wanted to create a whole lot of other career pathways and value-added production," Hall said.
Spread out in front of us are hectares of berries to be planted under tunnel houses for Kaikohe Berryfruit.
Hall points out that the production of the berry fruits across many facets has been at the forefront of their thinking. There's the sale of fresh berries, frozen berries, dried berries, extracts and even leaf extracts.
"It is about how many value added and high value adds can we do to help the region thrive."
And creating jobs. Wayne Rogers is Kaikohe born and bred. He is the skills and employment co-ordinator for the park.
"My role is to meet with those of our growers and tenants and work with them to assist their employment needs and then help them fill the the requirements that they need for the workers. And at the same time, look at how we can develop the workers, looking at training and education, opportunities for them."
The goal - a lofty one - is to try to create jobs the 1000 people Rogers estimates are on the Kaikohe unemployment register.
In the mid-North, he says, much employment has been seasonal. Much of it, too, out of area. In the 1990s he worked for the New Zealand Employment Service as people sought jobs in the east of the region, often driving cars without warrants or licences to get there.
Now, he says, there are jobs locally for local people.
Photo: Supplied Ngawha Innovation and Enterprise Park
He talks of people who had been prisoners in the Northland Regional Corrections Facility and came out to get jobs on the construction gangs at the park.
"We still have one of them that is still working up there. He's loving his job. Every time I pass this bulldozer, he always waves out with a big smile. It's giving them an opportunity to be able to actually participate again, back in the community and have work that's really meaningful."
He aims to have a workforce that can learn different skills and then progress to the next job as it arises.
"Hopefully, we'll have a workforce that can work right across the park moving to different crops, different businesses, different organisations."
He admits he loves his job.
"Love it. Love it. It's been awesome. Especially working with my whanau and my people here. I grew up here. So I have a vested interest in commitment to our whanau in Kaikohe.
"So that's the key thing that drives me and gets me up in the morning."
The berries from Kaikohe Berryfruit should be planted in June or early July. There'll be around three hectares of strawberries.
Berryfruit's Nicki Paget says it's been like learning to drive a car - a moderate one.
Photo: supplied Ngawha Innovation and Enterprise Park
"We decided not to learn to drive a Ferrari, we've decided to learn to drive in a very common-sense Corolla and not try to take everything in one big bite.
"So the goal of really what we're doing, and I guess the reason that I'm here, is to bring secure employment to the people of Kaikohe.
"And they've managed to do all this by themselves, the skills that they've had to learn to get on machinery to put together massive big tunnel houses like this. And the wonderful thing is we're giving them a break while we wait for the berries to arrive.
"But all of those people, Wayne's managed to place in employment because they wanted to keep working. So they've gone from being unemployed people to actually wanting to keep going with jobs, and they can't wait to come back. And to me, that's what this project is about. Yes, we're going to produce something and I can't wait to eat the strawberries at Christmas time. But really, for us, it's about bringing employment to the region. And just building something that they can be proud of, and their families and generations to come can be a part of."
