The News
Thursday January 15 2015
Page 27
Rooms heated An innovative custom made system that will recycle thermal water will ensure Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools and Spa’s changing rooms are warmer and drier than ever before. A $1 million changing room upgrade is under way, part of which involves a new system that reuses the water for underfloor heating and to heat the shower water and air temperature. Pools’ general manager Graeme Abbot says it’s recycling on a grand scale. ‘‘Normally this water
Passion for the land. . . Retired Methodist minister Brian Turner has returned to the land.
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PHOTO: DAVID HILL.
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Minister now tends the land By DAVID HILL Brian Turner always wanted to be a farmer, but says God had other ideas. The retired Methodist minister, who turned 73 last month, returned to farming three years ago on a seven hectare block near Amberley Beach. ‘‘I was pretty annoyed with the Lord for taking me away from farming, so now I guess I’m getting my own back,’’ he jokes. Brian purchased the 7ha forestry block on Newcombes Road in 2011 and milled the trees, using the proceeds to redevelop the property when he retired from his last ministry appointment in Rangiora in January 2012. ‘‘We used to have a quarter acre section in Amberley and I always liked the area, with the hills, the forestry and the sea.’’ He has since replanted most of the property in pines, eucalyptus, redwood, totara, kahikatea and cypress and kept five acres bare to run a few sheep. ‘‘I’m still deciding what the future of the block will be. ‘‘It will probably be milled once my lifetime is over, or it may be in my mid90s. I’m still undecided whether it’s for family or for the community.’’ While he was born and bred in Wellington, Brian always wanted to be a farmer and spent holidays visiting family members on farms. After attending Wesley College in south Auckland, which in those
organisation Christian World Service (CWS) in the 1980s and general manager of Trade Aid in the 1990s he worked with organisations advocating for sustainable farming practices. He also serves on a New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services policy group looking at poverty and inequality issues, including the plight of migrant workers in the Amuri area. While he spends three days a week on the farm, Brian continues to have a strong church and community involvement, including supporting CWS and Te Whare Roimata, which works with marginalised individuals in east Christchurch, and he is the convenor of the West Papua Canterbury Action Group. He says some of his sheep are jointly owned with another semi retired minister, and are used to support Te Whare Roimata. This Christmas Brian set aside a large Christmas tree for the St Georges / Iona Presbyterian Church in Aranui, which has been operating from a marquee since losing its church building in the earthquakes. But this was stolen from the farm by a passerby. ‘‘It was a nice big, bushy pine tree. I had another tree on the property which was much smaller, but they were able to make do,’’ Brian says. A Hawarden farmer offered to donate another big tree, but by then it was too close to Christmas.
days had a 160ha farm, he completed a practical farming course at Flock House in the Manawatu. At age 21 he was working as a sharemilker in central Taranaki, splitting a 29 per cent agreement and ‘‘already targeting the farm I wanted to buy’’. ‘‘I was offered 29 per cent on my own, but I had to sign up for three years. I couldn’t accept it because God was starting to nudge me.’’ After completing a one year lay leadership course at Trinity Methodist Training College in Auckland, Brian worked in forestry for a summer job, before studying for a year at Auckland University and then candidating for ministry. ‘‘Ironically my only appointment to a semirural parish was my last one in Waimakariri. I liked getting out to Oxford and going on to the farms and there were a few farmers in each of the congregations. ‘‘I’ve always been quite at home in an urban setting, but I always wanted to get back to the land.’’ However, Brian managed to keep in contact with farming in his variety of roles over the years, working with community gardens and various landscaping and other projects in parish communities in New Zealand and appointments in Papua New Guinea, Malaysia and the Solomon Islands over the years. As the national director of the Christchurchbased aid
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