A Riot of Colour- Fields of Tulips, Southland

Catch-up (October 28, 2019)

From Cromwell we headed back to Southland to look after our Winton family's house and cat while they were away for a couple of weeks. I was very pleased to find out that our visit coincided with an event that has been on my bucket list for a very long time.

On just one day a year- Labour Day- Triflor NZ Ltd, an Edendale tulip bulb exporter opens up one of their large paddocks for the public to visit and view an amazing display of flowers. The flowers aren't for picking though, they will cut and mulched and the bulbs will then be harvested soon after the open day.

It's 54km from Winton to Edendale and as I wanted to be there when the gates opened at 10am, I was up and ready to go well ahead of time.  I zig-zagged my way across Southland and was delighted to find several paddocks of colourful tulips along the back roads, about 20 kilometres before Edendale. I was ahead of schedule and had time to stop and photograph them as well.

There was plenty of parking at Triflor headquarters but it was filling fast when I arrived just before 10am. The event is used a fundraiser for the Edendale Presbyterian Church, Edendale Scouts and Wyndham Lions Club; there was a small market in progress inside one of the sheds and a queue forming for the guided tours (gold coin donation). 

Several small passenger vans took visitors on a tiki-tour around the local area; along country roads and down farm tracks and past many of the tulip fields that can't be seen from the road. Dairy cows, looking a little out of place beside the mass plantings of vibrantly coloured tulips, watched curiously from the other side of fences as the procession of vehicles passed by.

Five companies lease or own 350ha in Southland, growing and exporting 175 million tulip bulbs every season. Trifor, the largest company, have 100ha and exports around 55 million bulbs each year. Several companies lease land from local dairy farmers or swap land use with them as the bulbs need to be grown on rotation every 7-8 years. 

About 80% of the bulbs are exported the United States and the rest to Holland, Norway, Finland and Russia. Southland has excellent soils, good rainfall and cool weather which are all required to grow high quality tulips bulbs. 

The bulbs are harvested during January & February and sent to the northern hemisphere where they are raised in hot houses and timed to bloom during the northern winter when flower prices are higher.

Visitors to the open day aren't allowed to pick the flowers and they also need to stay near the beginning of the rows so the bulbs aren't damaged.  When queried as to why the flowers weren't picked for sale to the flower industry in NZ or exported, the grower answered 'Who wants 170 million tulip blooms?' and "When did your partner last buy you a dozen tulips?' 

The rows of blooms are inspected for imperfections and odd colours and those bulbs removed before harvest.

Although some unusual ones may make the grade. The 'cauliflower' looking tulip in the centre of the mosaic below was one such bulb a few years ago. It's protege have been painstakingly cultivated each season and now there are several short rows of the plant. 

It wasn't a surprise to see that not many people were stopping to admire it though. The brilliant colours of all the others by far and away overshadowed the muted tones and odd shape of this quirk of nature.

It was hard to choose a favourite colour, they were all stunning but I loved the deep wine colour of these ones. I imagine that they would be a very popular colour for bridal bouquets.

How to stand out in a crowd.

And talking about crowds, dozens of people had arrived at the sheds by the time our tour van arrived back at the display paddock, the large carpark was full and many vehicles now lined the narrow country roads outside the farm. Over a 1000 people visited the farm this year, the largest crowd ever.

Inside the shed the queue for the tours snaked back and forward across the floor and a lot of visitors had opted to walk straight down to the tulip paddock. And in fact, as a photographer, I would do this next time. The tour was good but there were no photo opportunities and it was over an hour before we came back to the display. 

There was still plenty of room for me to take photos in amongst the visitors taking their ultimate selfies or photos of their children dressed in their Sunday best.

There are many migrant families working on dairy farms in Southland & Otago and I know that bright colours and beautiful flowers are a feature in their cultures. I'm sure many photos of treasured grandchildren were sent to families overseas that night.

A Riot of Colour

If you haven't already, click on a photo to enlarge it and then use your direction arrows to scroll back & forward through the photos, the colours are just spectacular (or perhaps it's just me, but I can't get enough of looking at this amazing sight).

Of course I photographed each and every row and from several different angles until I finally reached the far side of the field and when I turned to head back to the sheds, there was still a mass of people arriving.

Further to the south the weather looked to be about to take a turn for the worse and I wanted to check out a couple of the paddocks we'd seen on our tour earlier in the day. Our driver had pointed out side roads where there were tulips that could be seen from the road.

This sea of pink took my breath away, what a fabulous colour (and possibly my new favourite) and as you can see I couldn't get enough of them. Anyone want 50 photos of pink tulips?

But I lingered a little too long at the pink tulip parade and when I next looked up I could see the weather front was just about on top of me. There was one more field (actually two) that I wanted to see before I headed home, this one of white tulips when the rain started to fall...

...and one back near the main road where the heavens opened up and all hell broke loose. I managed to grab a few shots but not before getting a total drenching in the heavy downpour. 

Afterwards as I passed Triflors on my way home, dozens of people were still arriving, walking along the road in their finery and without umbrellas or wet weather gear. Others were struggling back to their cars, some parked over a kilometre away, looking like drowned rats. It was such a shame the day ended liked that but I was so pleased I arrived early.

Several days later I was back in the area and thought I'd look in on the tulip fields (as you do) that I hadn't had the time to check out when it was raining.

These reds and oranges were very vibrant, it was just a pity I could only stand at the side of the road to take photos. Given half the chance I'd have been in their amongst it again.

I also stopped at the Triflors display tulip field, this time at the other end to where we'd all been just days earlier. A dairy herd was slowly wandering back to their paddock after milking, along the track we'd been on the other day. Even though I knew what the outcome was going to be it was still quite sad to see that the de-heading machine had been through and most of rows of glorious coloured tulips had been unceremoniously chopped!

Petals & broken blooms lay in the furrows between the plants. It was such a sorry sight to see after such beauty but at least they had had their one day of glory.

Crank Up- 2017

Catch-up

This one's been waiting in the wings for a long while- since Saturday, January 28th, 2017 to be exact, a Saturday that turned out to be the hottest day in the whole of Southland's poor excuse for a summer. 

Crank Up is one of the biggest vintage machinery events in New Zealand and is held in the shadow of the huge Edendale Dairy factory that dominates the landscape in the Southland country town of the same name. This year was the 30th anniversary.

Our Winton family have made it one of their 'must visits' each year and were keen to have us share the day with them this time round. We packed up a picnic lunch and folded ourselves into the people mover and headed off across country to Edendale. Ollie & Ruby were so excited, they spent the whole 55km road trip rattling off a long list of what they thought we should see and what they wanted to have a go at this year.

Once we found ourselves a car park. we hailed a 'taxi' and clambered aboard the quadbike-trailer combo, along with another couple, for an exhilarating ride weaving our way through and down the row upon row of vehicles already parked. I hope we can find our way home later...

Of course first up (and to curtail the excited chatter), were the mini jeeps. Last year Dad drove Ruby's jeep, this year she was determined to do it herself (see the tongue). 

I've never seen so many tractors in one place! I wonder where they all hide for the rest of the year. There were rows and rows of tractors lined up across a couple of large paddocks.

Southland certainly has more than its fair share of vintage tractors and trucks. It's great to see New Zealand's history and heritage is being so well looked after.

The tractor pull was happening near the dairy factory. Tractors in their respective classes pull a set weight on a sled. When a tractor gets to the end of the 100 metre track, it's known as a "full pull". When more than one tractor reaches the end, more weight is added to the sled and the competitors that moved past 100 metres compete in a pull-off; the winner is the one who can pull the sled the farthest. There seems to be a David & Goliath competition going on here. 

Various unusual contraptions trundled and shook their way along the walkways on their way to and from the parade ground. Before this traction engine made it into the alleyway, I had visions of excited kids (not our kids) falling underneath as they pushed each other out of the way and ran across in front of it.

Look at the face on this guy!

Either the guy is very tall (bottom right) or that's a truckie's version of a lowered car. Check the number plate out too. And we certainly knew when the tractor was making it's way through the crowd by its throaty roar, even if you couldn't see it.

Southern police need this secret weapon to chase crims across muddy fodder paddocks and maize fields. Ruby enjoyed climbing up into the cab and pretending to drive the tractor. And, it's a gimmick, the police don't really chase criminals in it, the tractor is used for PR at shows like this one.

These steampunkers wandering through the crowd certainly turned a few heads in conservative Southland.

And I have the feeling that this guy belongs with the others...or he's an extra in a Mad Max movie and has lost his way.

This guy (and his owner) certainly look like they belong with the others but they don't, this Macaw parrot is one of only two privately owned in New Zealand. His owner is a local magician who does shows and children's parties. Aren't those colours just stunning, nature sure is amazing.

Time for lunch....now where did we park the car and more importantly, how the hell do we tell our taxi driver where to go (shout at him loudly) .

After lunch we visited the stationary engines display...

Obviously there are plenty of people who enjoy owning and looking at these engines but personally I prefer something that moves. Fast.

Although I did try to convince David I'd be in seventh heaven towing this generator behind the rig! I don't think our neighbours would be though.

To add to their ever growing list of experiences at Crank Up, Ollie and Ruby were interviewed and videoed for a local newspaper. I'm not sure a ride in the mini jeeps was quite what the reporter was expecting from them when she asked what was the best bit of Crank Up. And 'Frankie' the teddy bear got a starring role.

Next came the parade, first a mock battle between....I'm not too sure, but they made a lot of noise. And don't ask, I have no idea what the Ninja Turtle was up to.

Someone won....but like the Turtle, I'm not so sure the Porta-loo quite fits the scene either.

Next came the steampunk people...

...some of whom didn't look too happy to be walking around the oval. I'm sorry, but I can't contain myself anymore. I wondered if they might have stolen a few subjects from the local rest home. Good on them for doing something outside the norm though.

Then came the Vauxhall parade and a few old memories- Dad's sister's husband was a Vauxhall fan and had many of these models. 

And I drove a few of the later models during my teen years.

It wasn't long before the kids got bored, the sun climbed higher and the queue for an icecream snaked across the yard. We decided to head for home, we missed the dancing tractors and another whole field of diggers and dozers and the kids were most upset that they didn't get to have a go at the 'digger dig' like last year. Cameron thanked his lucky stars we didn't find it, he had to queue with them and the queue was double the length of the ice cream line! 

And the reason why I hadn't done a blog before now? Once again I had to process the photos and as per usual I had far too many of them. I've uploaded them to a Flickr Album, click this link if you'd like to see more.