GP, writer and avocado grower Andrew Corin at McLaren Falls. Photo / Mark McKeown
GP, writer and avocado grower Andrew Corin at McLaren Falls. Photo / Mark McKeown
We are constantly reminded of the importance of work-life balance in the media and how a good balance enhances our health and wellbeing.
Tauranga GP Dr Andrew Corin has found his own work-life balance in the hands-on process of establishing and maintaining an avocado orchard, and in creative and scientific writing.
Andrew met his wife, Kathy, at North Shore Hospital while he was studying medicine and she was studying physiotherapy.
“We’d both grown up in non-city environments and found ourselves living in the city to study,” he said.
“We accepted city life as something we had to do at the time, but it certainly wasn’t my happy place.”
“Kathy had said she was only prepared to live in Tauranga for a year because her family were up in Auckland.
“We’re still here 30 years later and have a 20-year-old daughter and 17-year-old son, and Kathy’s family moved here.
“Tauranga means ‘resting place’ or ‘safe anchorage’ in Māori and that is exactly what the place has become for us.”
In 2002, the Corins were one of the first to build on a 1.4ha rural residential section in Bethlehem, part of a development of an old kiwifruit orchard.
“While we wanted space around us, we didn’t want the land to consume all our spare time,” he said.
“My profession can be very mentally and emotionally demanding and there needed to be a balance where I was filling my tank in another way.”
Corin speaks with pride and humility about his work as a GP and running a primary care-based clinical research unit.
“I love my job and I’m an advocate of the value and joys of general practice.
“The variety is very stimulating and I feel privileged to be allowed into people’s lives during their most vulnerable and intimate moments.”
The avocado orchard
Dr Andrew Corin in his avocado orchard.
The couple decided to grow avocados, not only for financial gain but as “something good for the spirit”.
Corin said the physical work and connecting with the land was very grounding, and spending time in the orchard soon became his “happy place” to go and disconnect from work.
The happy place was significantly damaged in 2017 when runoff from a nearby development after a medium weather event flooded the avocado orchard.
Corin was devastated.
“I lost half of my trees and it put the orchard back many years.
“Avocados are a jungle tree with a shallow root system and being underwater suffocated the roots.
“The silt left behind after the water rendered the affected areas unusable. It was upsetting to watch it happening.
“I got contractors in to rehabilitate the land and implement a fertiliser programme, preparing for replanting with Hass on Bounty rootstock avocados, which are more resilient to wet conditions.”
Corin was struggling with a serious hand injury at the time and had been through eight operations over two years to reconstruct his hand.
When replanting started, he was able to participate.
A different planting system was used where the trees were closer together and they grew vigorously and were healthy.
“Then in January 2023, Cyclone Gabrielle came along and wiped out half of the 55 new trees we’d planted,” he said.
“I accept that challenges always come along with land ownership, whatever the size, but it’s not easy to work through.”
After investing in an upgraded drainage system in the orchard, Corin is now waiting for replacement trees.
He’s replanting with Reed avocados in the hope that variety across the orchard will provide some resilience to future adversity.
A creative mind
Corin has been supporting patients using a Positive Medicine model under the four pillars of Te Whare Tapa Whā, which addresses the mental and emotional, family and social, spiritual, and physical aspects of wellbeing.
“Allowing people to have control of their life and their journey allows for better outcomes,” he said.
“Having someone to walk alongside makes this achievable. This model provides that.”
After writing in various formats throughout his life, Corin said he “got much more serious about it in 2019″, resulting in the publication of his first book, a collection of short fiction, This Old Stick.
This year he released his second book, a historical fiction novel, Today in Paradise.
He also has a collection of blogs and podcasts on his website covering creative and scientific topics.
“I’m so grateful that my family has generously allowed me the space and time to write.”
