Kiwifruit love tale for TV in China

Several episodes of the Chinese soap opera Lao Neng Jo are set around a kiwifruit packhouse in Te Puke. Picture / Alan Gibson

A television crew for a Chinese soap opera has hit New Zealand to film a "love in the packing shed" storyline based around the Chinese gooseberry.

The film crew for the soap opera Lao Neng Jo arrived on Friday for a week of filming.

New Zealand kiwifruit marketing arm Zespri International organised for at least five episodes of the soap opera to be shot in this country after the director and writers were invited to visit Zespri in February looking for story ideas.

Zespri communications co-ordinator Cassandra Stuart said the storyline was "a bit of a quirky Chinese plot" involving a Shanghai-based greengrocer, played by actor Qian Yi - "he'd be the Chinese equivalent of Temuera Morrison".

The greengrocer's wife flees for New Zealand after his ex-wife turns up and he and his friends quickly follow to beseech her to return.

The wife, played by Ying Xu, has family with business interests in the kiwifruit industry, so ends up on an orchard in Te Puke, where the filming so far has involved such romantic scenes as the main actor emerging from the kiwifruit orchard munching down on a golden kiwifruit, looking for his wife.

The soap opera, which Ms Stuart says is China's equivalent to Days of Our Lives, has been on air for a decade and screens in prime time from 8 to 8.30 each weeknight, with two re-runs the next day.

The Lao Neng Jo cast and crew will be in New Zealand until this Saturday. Locations include a lodge in Katikati, Mt Maunganui, Rotorua and Auckland.

Ms Stuart said as well as benefiting the kiwifruit industry, the venture was a chance to showcase New Zealand's scenery to more than three million viewers in China.