Sometimes you have to feel the fear and do it anyway, says David Walshaw, who left a 25-year finance career to become an olive grower.
With no previous farming experience, he and his wife Helen turned 20 acres of bare paddocks on the Kapiti Coast into a world-class olive oil business.
David and Helen Walshaw of Kapiti Olives Photo: Kapiti Olives / Facebook
"I wanted to do something that I knew nothing about … and have a completely different lifestyle from the money world that I'd worked in."
15 years on, Kapiti Olive Oil has won many awards, including a bronze medal in last year's Consumer NZ taste test.
Olive oil production is a lot less complex than winemaking, David says.
"Olives grow on the trees. You can harvest them, press them and get olive oil. You don't have to do anything, you don't have to add anything else."
Through years working in stressful city jobs – including the "serious business" of financial advising – David hankered for the rural life.
He says the hardest thing was making the decision to go for it.
"In the end, you just have to bite the bullet and do it."
Kapiti Olive Oil Olive's at harvest time Photo: supplied
David says he was lucky enough to have money from his former business to start up Kapiti Olive Oil debt-free.
"I have a theory that you never get to these decisions unless you get rid of debt early.
"I repaid our housing loan quite early because I never wanted to be trapped by the corporate."
Many businesses fail due to failure to plan, and David's finance acumen enabled him to avoid that trap.
In New Zealand, olives are grown from Queenstown to Northland.
Our temperate climate and thin soils suit them.
In recent years, international olive oil judges – including Italians – are amazed at the quality of our olive oil, David says.
And it's not a bad job making it.
"It's a really nice lifestyle, it's really good."
David Walshaw is the author of Olive Oil the New Zealand Way.
