2025 PIA Big Adventure

PIA Big Adventure West Coast Day 1

Another year, another adventure with our fav friends. A more respectable 7am kick-off. Level 2 PIA is off to the West Coast. Team Leader (Sarah), Team Leader in training (Sally), and our 2 fav parents Michelle Howell & Chris Atkinson complete the leadership team.

Back at school, our team have meticulously planned our adventure; “To open our eyes to the Primary Industry world beyond Geraldine" - so not surprisingly, the first shop is Sheffield Pies - world famous, did you know? Fortunately, we have just had the school holidays over which the teens could recharge their brain cells for the dilemma of steak or steak and cheese. 

Our first visit is to Bes Gro - Sphagnum moss. Very cool - so simple but efficient. Did you know that moss was used as field dressings back in the day, has antibacterial properties and doesn’t break down.

What did we learn? That attitude and work ethic is everything, don't be the boss that sits in the truck barking orders; never burn a bridge; leave school and any jobs on a high, you never know when you might need a favour; do the basics well from the start.

Cranberries are next on the list - NZ’s only Cranberry growers. A true Superfood.

Far out, picture in your head a cranberry bush - wrong, it's long runners along the ground. It takes 5 years for a cranberry plant to establish, but then it pretty much produces forever. 

PIA Big Adventure West Coast Day 2

Our teens survive the angst of a phoneless night. FYI, part of the joy of a PIA trip is that the teens hand their phones in overnight, like cutting an umbilical cord, and it is Team Leader’s annual power trip. 

Birchfield Coal mines is first up on today's agenda. We met up with Shane, who took us down to the pit where we discovered the coal they were mining was between 4  and 14 million years old. We were all very amazed to see the scale of the machinery, all of which was purchased second-hand from companies that are either ceasing operations or just upgrading machinery. The lads have a group grunt.

Next stop: West fleet fish factory, where we got a first-hand experience on how fish are processed as well as how they are caught, and some of the technicalities around running a fish business. A wondrous 3 hours are spent here, fish as far as the eye can see, with fun fish facts to match. Well worth the time.

A detour to the Brunner mine disaster site, fish and chips for tea, followed by a jaunt to the glow worms - oooh aaah.

PIA Big Adventure West Coast Day 3

The weather gods have smiled on us thus far, with the dire predictions still in the future. Packing up and escaping our accommodation proves to be a military operation. Our first stop is to drop a morning tea shout off to our friendly mechanics, thanking them for saving us and fixing our van, thus avoiding a prolonged Hokitika experience - although there are so many more locals we have yet to meet. Our parents on tour agree that this, perhaps, would not be the highlight for all parties that the students believe it to be. 

WestGold is our first visit today. To see butter being processed and all things milk-related. This is followed by Westco Lumber, which was a great example of how to cope when government policy changes - the bulk of their business used to be native, and how to look after and keep a team of staff.

Highlights

• Team Leader gleefully informs her friends that she has been to the dentist, who declared that she has the teeth of a 24-year-old. Team Leader is overjoyed that the teeth clearly match the rest of her. The teens agree wholeheartedly. 

• The new world checkout self-service machine tells Issy - Hello and welcome; OMG, she has a friend! On politely greeting her new friend, the lad walking past joins the conversation, asking for her ph. number - Chris (dad) appears - it's a short-lived romance.

• Innes on viewing the wonder that is cooking tea; "It's like watching a traction engine warm up”

• Our intrepid team ask our Cranberry growers why they haven’t been on Country Calendar - apparently 23 min of content is needed and they can’t fill that time span - Team leader is positively frothing at the thought of an imminent collaboration.

• The mandatory outing to the supermarket allows us to meet the locals.

• Innes, on chatting traction engines, discovers that Steve knows Kierian, who knows Dave, who lives next to Chris, whose aunt is Nigel's sister. 

• We have had congratulatory messages from all hosts thus far, all in a similar vein, awesome, interested, polite, engaged - Go team PIA.

Overall, what did we learn?

How to be a good boss, how to get and keep a job, that every business we visited had a strong community focus in terms of supporting, employing and training locals. How to think outside the square and survive in an isolated area. And most importantly, that attitude is everything.