In this summer series, the Country Life team is taking you back to some of the places we’ve been to over the past year.

A doctor, an island and oil: The olive journey of Peter Crelinsten

Puketi Olive Farm’s mascot and representative, Sky the border collie.
Photo: Supplied

On the banks of the Kerikeri River, Puketi Olive Farm rests. 

It’s here where retired doctor, Peter Crelinsten, is cultivating not only the oil from the olives but the health benefits too.

Peter’s connection with olives dates back to the 1990s when he resided on the Maltese island of Gozo, in the Mediterranean. 

Read more about Peter’s olive oil here.

Lou Lou the Cow Whisperer

Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes

Cows are Laura Murdoch’s passion and she shares her everyday interactions with them on Facebook and Tiktok.

Some of her Cow Whisperer videos have racked up quite a few hits. One has had 40,000 views and thousands of likes.

“I try and showcase my fun and I like looking at them, so then I think surely someone else might too!”

Read more about Lou Lou the cow whisperer here.

Hunting for Tai Rāwhiti – “I don’t see deer, I see a food bag”

Setting out hunting at dawn
Photo: RNZ/Sally Round

It’s the crack of dawn just after the roar and three hunters and their dogs are sidling along a ridge on the edge of a forest. 

Mist cloaks the valley below and in the distance is the sacred maunga, Hikurangi.

Lisa, Matt and 16-year-old Sam are stalking deer on Puketoro Station, one of Tairāwhiti’s landmark sheep and beef stations on the edge of the Raukumara Range.

Read more about how they’re there not only for the thrill of the hunt but also to stock the region’s food banks which are under heavy demand in the cyclone-ravaged region.