Spencer Kahu has been farming in the Kaikōura District since he was 14.
Now he's 24 and manages two large properties.
"It's special to me, I started my career in farming here and future-wise I think I'm going to be here until I'm gone," he says with a chuckle.
Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
The properties are owned by a group of local families. Spencer says they fully support his vision for the land.
"They are very set on conservation, looking after everything we have, but also show a cultural side [to farm management]."
Sustainability, conservation and gathering kai for the whānau go hand in hand with the business of farming for the young farmer.
Lake Rotorua covers 172 hectares and sits in the middle of The Lakes, a 1070-hectare farm at Peketa, just south of Kaikōura.
Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Paddocks bordering part of the lake are used mainly for winter grazing dairy cows.
Spencer says the lake used to be full of algae that was sucking oxygen out of the water until he fenced it off.
"Having run off and whatnot I've got to be careful, so I have made a management plan around keeping the lake as good as I can."
It has taken three years to clear the lake of the algae and the water is healthy again, according to water testing data from the Cawthron Institute.
The main beneficiaries are the animals and plants that live in and around the lake.
"There are heaps of different bird species on the lake and there's eels and trout and I believe inanga or whitebait in the lake now as well."
Nearby is a block of forest protected by a QE2 covenant and the wetlands and new native plantings are thriving behind the fencing.
"That buffer between the farmland and the lake has just helped it a hell of a heap," he says.
"Now I can set a hīnaki [trap] in the lake and I catch the odd tuna. And over duck shooting season when I'm going out to the maimai, I have a bit of a troll and try and catch a trout."
Photo: Spencer Kahu
Perched along a grassy ridge above Kaikōura is the other farm that Spencer manages. It goes right out to the cliffs that meet the sea.
This is where he runs most his of Angus breeding cows. There is also Hutton's shearwater/Kaikōura tītī colony on the property.
"My good friend Ted Howard looks after it. They are slowly trying to entice more birds to start nesting there and that's just an opportunity we had to help out a species and stop it from becoming endangered."
