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Savouring the Sweet Taste of Success

February 22, 2018

Having gained the National Certificate in Horticulture (Advanced Level 4), Karen Christy is keen for further study.      

Senior supervisor on a Mr Apple orchard in Clive, she is taking up EIT horticulture tutor Gordon Reid’s suggestion that she now study the level 5 New Zealand Diploma in Horticulture Production (Fruit Production strand) – and she isn’t ruling out a degree after that. 

Karen can’t speak too highly of Gordon and he, in turn, says she is highly motivated and goes out of her way to do a good job. 

Of Ngāti Kahungunu descent, she was raised in a Haumoana family of 10 children.

“My parents have a strong work ethic,” she says.  “They worked in shearing sheds when I was born and I have picked fruit since childhood.  Tomatoes, pears, peaches, apples, there’s not much I haven’t picked.”

The trigger for tertiary study was Karen’s daughter Kacy Christy, who is on track to gain EIT’s Bachelor of Nursing in July.  

“I thought if Kacy can do something with two young boys then so can I.”

Karen’s employer, Mr Apple, supported her decision to study fruit production.  So too did orchard manager Mark Wakefield, who ruefully admits to fielding a barrage of questions as Karen worked through her assignments.

“She’s had 22 years of experience in the apple industry and she knows everything about trees but she didn’t know the next bit,” he points out.  “She had the interest but never the drive to get there, but she pushed me with the course.”

Mark says that by undertaking study, Karen has added “hugely” to her skills base.  

 “I’ve been on this orchard since 2000,” she says of the Lawn Road property.  “I’ve contract picked, thinned, packed and pruned.  I have a broad base of knowledge but, as you progress, you need more pieces of pie to fill the circle.  And I just want to keep learning.”

In hindsight, she feels she should have started on the tertiary education path earlier. 

“Now I would tell the young Karen to stay at school, to get qualified at something, to try early to find something you are passionate about.    Otherwise you wander aimlessly and find it takes longer to reach goals you suddenly realise you didn’t have.”

Karen has warned Mark that she is after his job.  And joking aside, she would perhaps like to mentor other orchard workers as they make their way up the industry ranks.