Level 2 PIA Adventure Top of the South (Part 2)

Today is a day with the “Resilient Farmer”, Doug Avery. Doug has been extremely generous in organising the whole day beginning with a tour of his home farm followed by the saltworks and finally Yealands vineyard.

We discovered the power of Lucerne, saw the impacts of drought and learnt from Doug’s vast knowledge about mental health.

A mountain of salt is quite big and we thought that there were a lot of fish and chip sprinkles. It was a good lesson in how to add value to a naturally occurring resource.

The scale of Yealands vineyard- the brainchild of entrepreneur Peter Yealand, is a sight to behold. That one person was responsible for all this is quite unbelievable. All 3 places were great lessons in how to build or rescue a business.

Highlights

• Guinea pigs are hawks' favourite food - discovered on being bred to eat the grass under the Yealands vines. A population explosion of the wee furry creatures presented a veritable smorgasbord for the raptors and all was well in the animal kingdom feeding frenzy until a piggy was dropped in the main street by the hungry hawk- the resultant public outcry saw the cute wee furry animals saved in favour of copious quantities of other forms of weed control.

• Kylie makes better unburnt garlic bread than John.

• John “Shall we just turn it up a bit" - his answer to all things kitchen-related.

• Josh winning the prize for answering the most questions (actually, all the questions). Tomorrow he has promised to have some quiet time.

• Jackson lets Sally have a turn at the lead at the end of their run.

• Charcoal’s good for your teeth (garlic bread).

• Richard knows all the words to all the songs.

• “If you always do what you've always done you'll always get what you've always got” - Doug Avery

• “If you think you can or you think you can’t you’ll always be right” - Doug Avery

• “Think boldly, tread lightly and never think it can’t be done”- Peter Yealand