Lola's Lurching Life Ch. 02

Lola said gently, "Perhaps even if you began with expert soil testing, any solution from that leading to increased yields could pay for itself many times over."

"We've debated that but have decided to soldier on, not wishing to be told by experts that our vineyard is in an area unsuitable for grape-growing or we need to consult other experts and on it will go. Fortunately, our decision to place our faith on breeding a flock of Scottish sheep has been a real winner for us."

"What yield do you get from your vineyard?"

"We have approximately 900 vines per acre with a low yield averaging about two tons of fruit per acre and that yields about 1400 bottles of wine per acre, whereas other producers on the real grape-growing parts of the island get 5000 to 7000 bottle per acre, some even more."

"Ah, about five times more than your vineyard. I see the problem. Of course, modern techniques will be involved in narrowing that difference and replacing existing vines with more suitable varieties of course."

"Indeed, and the company that presses and bottles our wine sends 200 cases back to us for our consumption and to sell to our friends and the company markets the rest of our production that sells out quickly to locals who like the taste and quality of our wine."

"Well that's excellent Helena. Come on, it's time to go home. I'll walk with you to the helicopter."

Before climbing aboard, Helena kissed her new friend and said, "Thank for everything you darling young woman. I'll be waiting mid-morning tomorrow for you at the wharf.

The fast-ferry arrived in Matiatia Bay forty minutes after leaving the harbour frontage of downtown Auckland, and Lola enjoyed the very scenic trip, seeing several of the more than 50 islands in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park, with Waiheke being the second largest and most populated island in the gulf, being 19 km long and up to 6 km wide.

Helena and Lola greeted one another like old friends.

"You were so good to me yesterday," Helena said. "I bonded with your almost instantly. I have few friends around my age and, my new daughter-in-law, who lives with us is 22 years my junior and not greatly talkative."

"Well, I'm happy to be your friend."

Arriving at the neat-looking modern farmhouse, set amid flower gardens, Lola was introduced to Helena's husband Dougal and son Callum who said his wife Iona was in town (Oneroa Village) where she managed the Drop-in Café.

Dougal said, "Helena said you were a bright spark and you certainly look like one, I venture to say. Um, with you being a townie (a person living in urban centres), don't go into the paddocks where there are sheep and please stay out of the vineyard where we are pruning at present."

"I can assist with pruning or even help you with dagging or crutching as it's mostly called where I come from."

"Oh, do they have sheep in Queen St, Auckland, this country's longest and busiest shopping street?" Dougal said and he and Callum laughed wildly while Helena shook her head at the men and waited as if knowing Lola was likely to deliver a head-jerking reply.

Her reply astonished the Wallace family.

"Actually, I was raised on a sheep farm in Hawkes Bay Province with around 16,000 sheep and some beef cattle. I began crutching sheep when I was thirteen and entered the female shearing competitions at the local Agricultural and Pastoral annual show from the age of fifteen until leaving home at the age of eighteen without any success but I'm now stronger and fitter these days."

At the age of 18, I headed to Auckland University where I gained a degree in Business Studies and a diploma in graphic design. At the farm, my mother grew trellised table grapes and I began helping with pruning from the age of about eleven until I left home and helped taking boxes to our self-service stand at the gate with its honesty box for payment, and on Saturday mornings for years I helped to serve at her stand at the open market."

"Um, crutching begins tomorrow for me," Callum said apologetically. "Would you like to work alongside me with mum doing the clearing away and sorting?"

"Yes, I'd like to do that but will be rusty. Electric or shears?"

"Shears went out decades ago."

"Not on my two uncle's sheep station in South Island hill country. They crutch with shears to avoid removing too much wool as the intention is not to give the sheep a cold arse in freezing weather where the sheep often have to battle through deep snowdrifts."

Dougal smiled.

"Christ, you're not just a pretty face and the high-flying business woman that Helena described to us after she landed outside the house yesterday in a chopper provided by you, and I thank you for that most gratefully. You and Iona will get along well, as she too has the humanitarian touch that also extends to distraught animals."

"And I bet your wife is also a bit of a softie."

Everyone laughed, the men nodding.

After late morning tea, Dougal, Lola and Helena boarded the 3-person cab of a John Deere diesel-powered 4WD all-terrain Gator and toured the increasingly hilly farm as they neared the west coast and then went up a long incline and stopped at the top and looked down over the vineyard.

She gasped and Dougal said, "Not a bad look, eh" and she said yes, but did not comment on what had caught her attention. But she did photograph the slight-irregular but basically oval-shaped depression and more photographs of soils in the cultivated section of the floor and the untouched sections of the remainder of the depression just past where the vineyard was fenced off.

As they drove down between two of the rows of vines and back along another two of the twenty-eight rows, Helena said, "Dougal and I this afternoon will continue with the pruning assisted by two neighbouring farmers and partners who'll log their hours worked for us and will be recompense with cases (12x750 mil. bottles) of wine. In turn we will assist them with haymaking and storing the bales, and being recompensed with bales of second-cut alfalfa hay for supplementary feed for our sheep in winter when grass growth is negligible."

Before being called for a barbecued chicken-thighs lunch in the back garden, Lola emailed seven images she had selected of the photographs she'd taken of the vineyard depression to a friend from their university days and during lunch she received a return reply and whooped excitedly.

"You must have received good news," laughed Dougal, standing with Callum and each drinking beer just as Helena emerged from the house with a bowl of salad and a bowl of oven-cooked potato chips.

"What's the great levity about, Lola. I saw you waving as fist held high while yelling."

"Sit, everyone and I'll read out a comment I have received from a geologist on the photos I sent her that I shot of the vineyards about ninety minutes ago."

At that moment, Iona arrived home. She was introduced to Lola and crashed against the visitor excitedly and said, "The heroine who cared for my mother-in-law yesterday, both unknown to each other, and extended that act of kindness by taking her to the heliport and then placing her on to a helicopter and then paying for the charter. I'm staggered that anyone would do such a thing of that magnitude to care for a stranger."

"People sometimes surprise themselves what they end up doing to other people and so it goes. Your mother bonded to me almost instantly, her softness and charm doing wonders for me as I happened to be feeling almost in despair in my loneliness and lo, I now have a household of instant friends."

"You deserve a medal and a fistful of dollars. I thank you from the bottom of my heart," said Iona, and wiped away a tear and buried her face into Callum's shoulder.

"Iona tends to become emotional," he explained to Lola.

Everyone seated at the picnic table under a gazebo with an orange canvas roof, watching Lola having a sip of her vodka on the rocks before reading out the emailed message.

She heard Callum bringing his wife up to date on what was about to be disclosed.

"This exciting news confirms my initial very amateur suspicion," Lola explained. "I sent Lillian King, a partner in a major firm of environment consultants, being one of my close friends I knew in our university days when she was studying for a science degree, majoring in geology. I asked her to comment on this vineyard on Waiheke Island where I am staying for a few days. I stated planting began 12 years ago and the yields from the vines have been unspectacular even in the best of seasons. The vineyard soils have never been tested."

"Lillian reply states:

Please inform your hosts that my comments are strictly non-professional as I've not inspected the site including surrounding terrain nor have soil-testing results ever been produced. These comments are based solely on my viewing of seven photo imagines and comments from Lola Hunt.

I tend to agree with your hunch Lola from on-site viewing, that the depression that this vineyard that lies somewhere on Waiheke Island, is an ancient volcanic depression that you rightly identified as a caldera, formed after an inward collapse of a major venting from a magma chamber. Two of the images viewed of the never-tilled grassland further along from the vineyard and within the depression, clearly show a view of a narrow-exposed seam of scoria running seawards and that scoria is a tell-tale sign of significance.

From the scant evidence from those seven images you sent me Lola, I believe that firstly the vineyard owner/manager should consult with two of the nearest commercial vineyard operators to find out what nutrients they add to the vineyard soils and at what rate, and add that to the compost that your hosts should apply around their vines to increase yields. Expert soil tests would reveal actual soil deficiencies.

Secondly, they need to spend money to determine the scoria levels that presumable lie beneath all of the vines and, with luck, the ancient scoria flows under the grapes may run reasonably near the surface and be not very thick. That being the case, the scoria should be shattered sufficiently to allow the roots of vines to penetrate to rich soils (if any) beneath the scoria, and the presence of rich soils under the ancient scoria flow are most likely. If the scoria flow residue is shallow, it could be shattered by a fence-post driver mounted on the back of a tractor.

Should the main flow of scoria lies deeper and is not more than a metre or two deeper, it could be shattered by a heavier impact mechanical hammer after holes have been drilled under each vine. It would pay to engage a consultant to determine if this far more expensive procedure is warranted. Obviously, any decision should be based on the vineyards' improved yield expected from composting and adequate watering.

Finally, what would I do if this vineyard with this blanket of underground scoria were mine?

I would compost with additives based on soil deficiencies as suggested by expert advice. Moreover, if cracking open the scoria blanket could be done with a hired impact attachment to a farm tractor, I'd definitely proceed with that to get the gains of increased yields that would be most likely.

"I definitely would not proceed with the heavy impact solution with commercial machinery because the cost-benefits for any such large-scale work on a small vineyard would be uneconomic.

Lola, please ask your hosts not to disclose to anyone my name or the name of the company I am involved because, as I said earlier, I have not seen the vineyard or have sighted any evidence of the vineyard's established management practices and vineyard economics.

Your dear friend, Lillian X.

"Hmm," Dougal said, raking his fingers through his thinning hair. "Holy shit."

His wife and daughter giggled nervously and Callum said thoughtfully. "That's a barrow full of helpful advice that would have cost heaps to have obtained had we hired a consultant and of course he or she would be done a thorough on-site investigation."

There was silence until Helena said, "My word, Lola, you are an amazing person."

"First, you saved me from possible tremendous embarrassment after my collapse on to the pavement of Auckland's busiest shopping and commercial thoroughfare. And then in just one sweep with your perception and having the right expert at your finger-tips, you have triggered and completed something that this family has procrastinated on over three generations. I'm lost for words."

Iona said, "You are amazing and what do you suggest we do, Lola?"

"I can readily answer that but first, could I have a glass of wine produced from this winery."

"Off your arse and get it for her, Callum," said his father.

Calum returned with a glass of wine smiling and said, "It's true that you have no idea of the wine we produce, right?"

"Yes, the only mention has been is white wine. I have read quite a lot about wine and been involved in a couple of wine-tasting and judging seminars in the Hawkes Bay plus paying through the nose for a 10-day wine appreciation course in Blenheim covering vineyard visits and touring wineries, and having the characterises of wine-production areas of this country explained comprehensively. Even so, I'm merely an amateur enthusiast when it comes to wine production, and so no way am I a person to consult about wine growing, harvesting and production."

The family watched Lola swirl the wine in the glass, take in the aromas of the contents and then sampling a small taste before taking a larger sip.

"Omigod, this is a spin-off of the Chardonnay type of wine. I recall tasting Viognier wines from three different Hawkes Bay producers and, based on my recollections, this wine is up with them in quality. The apricot flavour supported by peach is simply so beautiful."

"Thank you, Lola," smiled Dougal, appearing impressed. "You are the first visitor here apart from winemakers and some growers who have recognized our wine without reading a label or having the benefit of hearsay. It is Viognier."

"Yeah, I'm impressed too," Callum said. "So, what should we do with our vineyard?"

"Consult experts."

Smiling, Callum gave Lola an obscene fingers gesture and she giggled.

Lola suppressed a giggle but the others laughed, not at all being disgusted by that

Lola became aware from her reaction to Callum's foul gesture that once again she'd really unravelled as an uptight person from when she'd chosen to live in virtual isolation.

Iona said, "What would you do if this was your vineyard and you had money to invest?"

"Without doubt, I'd follow Lillian's advice and get the vineyard soil properly tested, and then go from there. I would also chat to two or three other winegrowers or their managers over drinks about the beating the problems you've had identified had with a vineyard built in the vent of an ancient volcano."

I'd acknowledge I had three choices: Doing virtually nothing, hiring a post-driver rig for my farm tractor and with my family taking turns on the laborious task of shattering the scoria under each vine if that would be practical, or finding some other way of doing that job much quicker by hiring a contractor with the appropriate commercial-built machinery used in road-making or construction of earth dams on farms."

"Yeah, that's the logical approach," Dougal nodded. "Soil testing and then investigating the possible options. Lola, we are busy on the farm, pruning in the vineyard and so on. What say you work for me at fifty bucks an hour for a maximum of 100 hours arranging the soil testing and moving around to find other growers who had scoria or stone patches on the land they were preparing for grape growing and how they handle those problems. I'd give you a letter of introduction and I'm pretty well-known by vineyard owners and managers on this island as we have get-togethers occasionally."

"Great idea, darling," said Helena. "But Lola has a day shearing with Callum tomorrow and leaves the island temporarily early next morning."

Callum frowned and said, "I understood that you were between jobs. Stay with us longer, Lola. You could thrive in working for dad as he's offered you a real challenge."

"Yeah, right. But I need to return home by 10 on Saturday to begin packing and placing my possessions in storage until I decide where to reside."

Dougal said, "Do that and return here for breakfast on Monday, bringing your car on a vehicular ferry."

"Hmm," Lola said, the more she thought about it the more appealing it seemed.

"There's no rush, take more time to consider it," Helena said. "But I'd like you to stay with us longer. I have friends I'd like you to meet."

"Well, prepare a list of the ones who live on vineyards," Lola laughed. "I'll be here for breakfast on Monday."

Chapter 8

During the high-speed ferry ride back to Auckland, Lola mapped out her plan for the next couple of weeks.

She went by cab to Cooper's home but he was not at there, leaving Lola to think he'd be busy somewhere licking the skeleton of his new empire into shape.

She walked back to the Gatehouse Cottage thinking it had been the perfect refuge for her at the time, but her mind was back to full power, her depression completely gone.

Lora felt she was about to begin a major phase in her life with the possibility of buying a small vineyard on Waiheke Island, or investing in a larger property with a 'hands on' contract to take major involvement in the operation of the enterprise, using a public accountant to finalize returns that she would draft.

Lola spent an hour on her laptop checking out used vehicle dealerships and then drove her Mazda MX5 sports car to the chosen one and negotiated a trade and purchase, paying cash to make up the price difference, driving home in a 2-year old black Ford Ranger pick-up in beautiful condition, believing it would be the best choice of vehicle in her new stage of life, she being sure she would stay on the island. Life there was already appealing to her.

Back at the cottage, after eating an omelette before started to pack, Lola called Dougal and asked if she could temporarily store her boxed effects in the old barn and he agreed to that request.

"This sounds as if you have decided to shift to the island for the foreseeable future?"

"Yes, Dougal. Time will tell if it's the right choice for me."

Lola returned to the island on the vehicular ferry at 6.00 am on Monday with all personal effects she owned in the tray of the pick-up.

Cooper had kindly collected cartoons and five plastic crates for Lola to pack her belongings in and she called to thank him.

"I'm away for at least a week negotiating to buy existing bike shops in Napier, Hastings, New Plymouth and Palmerston North to become branches of my cycle importing and sales business in Hamilton City and will look at other southern centres when the deals I make in the next couple of days are meshed in as a network," he said. "So far I have purchased bike shops in Napier and Hastings and I'm waiting for bike shop owners in New Plymouth and Palmerston to take up my offer."

"Oh, could you look at wedding venues on Waiheke and send me brochures darling."

"Really, I didn't think you cared that much for me," Lola joked.

"I do," he laughed, "But we both knew we were too independent to make an enduring happy couple whereas Meredith and I discovered we were far from being on the same wave-length and I've being humping this 28-year-old who is infatuated with me and wants to marry me."

Lola said carefully, "Be careful about rushing in to marry someone so much younger than you, my friend."

"She's no gold-digger, I'm sure of that. We just click so well and she relates well to my friends and many of them have said we are just right for one another. But as you say, I should give it close thought over the next couple of weeks."