Our Nature
Aotearoa is a land of abundance; we’ve been blessed with an incredible diversity of fauna and flora, unique in the world.
We are in love with and passionate about the land, New Zealand nature.
From the volcanic tops of Mamaku Plateau, where the berries were tested by the mountain climate, we bring the best of their goodness to you.
Our berries
Our Story
Harry and Anne planted their first blueberry blocks in 1982 and, during the 1980s, were one of perhaps 18 growers in the Rotorua area registered to produce export fruit.
At their Maraeroa Road property, they cultivated three blueberry varieties on 2.4ha of netted blocks - Jersey, Burlington, and the Dixi, which interestingly ripen on the bush in that order.
The venture into blueberries was not always an easy one; Harry and Anne received advice from multiple sources on how best to grow blueberries, mostly contradictory. Eventually, they decided that they would plant little seedlings, which weren’t more than bare twigs in rows. After months of diligently watching the twigs do anything barely at all, they finally leapt to life as spring came around, with tiny little shoots eventually becoming visible.
Through the eighties and nineties, the farm grew steadily, and with perseverance and a real passion to produce quality blueberries, it has continued to thrive.
For the next 15 years, they trialled a variety of redcurrant, blackcurrant, and green gooseberry plantings, as well as 30 different blueberry varieties. Green gooseberries were extremely interesting. They developed the gooseberry plantation on one-sixth of a hectare and removed all the unsuccessful plantings.
In 1999, they planted another 2 ha 2000 new plantings. With some of the new, earlier varieties, Reka, Bluecrop, Brigitta, Duke, continuously observing the differences between the varieties, production, and harvesting times, complementing the existing orchard. In 2015, preparations for building another block of 6,500 blueberry bushes began, with the first harvest in 2021, 6 years after preparations started.
Anne and Harry Frost
Legacy
Snuggled into the side of the 'Puku', one of the famous Mamaku land formations, a little way out of the historic timber village of Mamaku, sits the Mamaku Blue Blueberry Orchard.
As well as the blueberry farm, the complex is also home to the Blueberry café, where delicious food, desserts, and of course, real fruit ice-creams are served daily.
Any trip to the café is not complete without a wander around the eclectic collection of super interesting memorabilia and artefacts of the Mamaku area, some dating back over 100 years.
The farm is now home to son Phillip, his wife, Michaela, and their three children.
Blueberry farming has become a family enterprise, a great place to work and live. It is a passion that drives the family to continuously strive for more innovative ways to farm, keeping sustainability at the forefront of everything they do and produce.
Phillip with Michaela, and their children