For the past few years, Inglewood couple Kylie and David Cronin have been working on a plan. In fact, it would be fair to say once the seeds were sown, their plan kept growing, because the plan was to own and operate a Christmas tree farm in Taranaki.
"We bought our property specifically for the purpose," says Kylie, explaining they bought the land a few years ago and since then have been planting and cultivating in readiness for the opening of Pine Hills Christmas Trees this November.
While neither of them come from a family of festive fir tree growers, they are confident they have the knowledge, skills and determination to make their plan as fruitful as possible.
"We have done a lot of research and found lots of help online, mainly from American Christmas Tree farms, so we feel we have a clear sense of where we are going and what we are trying to achieve. There has been a bit of trial and error but now we are ready to open our gates and start selling trees ready for this Christmas."
Kylie, who is an accountant by day, trimming and shaping the trees in her free time, says this year they will have "purely pine" trees on offer, "but we may well expand into fir trees as well a few years down the track, as they are good for people with allergies".
