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MARCH 2018
TARANAKI FARMING LIFESTYLES
BY DENISE GUNN A cavalcade of tractors, jeeps and trucks has driven the length of New Zealand to raise funds for hospice. The journey, dubbed the second Great New Zealand Tractor Trek left Bluff in mid-February and reached Cape Reinga on March 9.
T
rek founder, Phil Aish, was raised on a Taranaki farm and moved to the Waikato and bought a dairy farm in 1967. He married Janice that same year. Although Phil now lives in Auckland, he still owns and oversees a couple of farms in Huntly, and is a keen tractor enthusiast. The fundraising trek is a labour of love for Phil. He organised and participated in the first trek in 2016, to honour a promise made to his late wife Janice in her last weeks of life. Phil and Janice wanted to say thank you to Hospice New Zealand for the ‘immeasurable support’
provided the Aish family during Janice’s last days. “You can’t put a price on having the burden of care lifted off your shoulders when someone close to you has a lifelimiting illness,” said Phil. “Hospices all over New Zealand provide people and their families with a very special type of care and support. Trek participants come from a variety of occupations, including a marine engineer, a university student, a child psychologist and a pump hire employee. Phil said he is blessed with a huge web of friends from all over the world.
Phil Aish with his tractor in Bluff
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