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The kanuka, above left, has smaller flowers and leaves, but
the tree can be tall, often growing in groves, with exposed
trunks and branches beneath. The manuka to its right has
larger blossoms and plumper leaves. At right, distilled oils
ready to store in gallon jugs. The darker oil is manuka. It
takes a tonne of branches to produce a kilo of oil.
goats (“they did a marvellous job of clearing the
bramble in the paddocks”), and peacocks also
roamed the property, “eating all the grubs”.
Nicholas still has one goat on the property
(“Gordon, named after the British Prime
Minister Gordon Brown”) and some cattle, but
half the original acreage has been sold off and
the farm operation is now essentially given over
to tea tree oil production.
It seems that good old fashioned pragmatism
was the inspiration for tea tree oil. “Well,” says
Nicholas, “we had read a bit about the tea
tree, and when we looked around we realised
that’s all we’ve got really”. Taking a leaf out of
Captain Cook’s book (he named the tea tree as
such as he used the leaves to make tea for his
crew), Nicholas tried brewing tea from tea tree
leaves collected on sheets under the trees but
declared “the tea was ghastly!”
“The Maori had already discovered that tea
tree was good therapy for the skin and other
ailments so we got into this side of things.
We had to start with a plant we knew nothing
about and then find out how to extract its oils”.
Nicholas still has copies of the original graphed
data from the early ’90s when Dr. Hassall
was conducting laboratory steam distillation
experiments, extracting the oils and measuring
the sesquiterpene content (one of the many
components of essential oils). With the
steam distillation process optimised, the ever
resourceful Nicholas then built the production
scale oil distillery himself, using an old German
design from the 17th century.
The oil is still being produced on the farm, but
after 20 or more years of operation, the original
apparatus is now being replaced with more
modern equipment to improve the efficiency
of the process. To ensure maximum yield and
quality, the process is gentle, and no crushing
or high heat treatment is involved.
Nicholas first started harvesting the tea tree by
himself, “breaking the branches off the trees”
and loading them onto a tractor trailer. Then his
late wife Monique and neighbours joined in
and “we progressed to clippers, etc.”. The
fact that it takes 1 tonne of leaves to produce
1 litre of oil is an insight into the amount of
lopping and trimming effort that is required.
These days Nicholas employs someone else
to prune the trees while his son is involved in
other sides of the business. Harvesting is a year
round pursuit although there is less growth in
winter, and in late spring the trees are awash
with swathes of white blossom. “The young
leaves produce the most oil” says Nicholas.
“We don’t fertilise at all, just a bit of lime on
the paddocks; lots of seagulls fly in and clean
up the property – they bring in selenium (in the
guano)”. As well as being an organic enterprise,
this tea tree ‘farming’ also has the virtue of being
a sustainable resource, with the trees occupying
otherwise marginal land, being self-generating
and requiring little care aside from pruning.
“When we started” reminisces Nicholas “it
was a helluva road for the first five years. We
couldn’t sell the product and then Monique
suggested we do soap as well”.
Since then the business has grown, and the
benefits of tea tree oil have become well
recognised: the antiseptic, antibiotic, antifungal
and anaesthetic properties of the oil being
underscored by original scientific work carried
out by Professor Merz in conjunction with
Waikato University, and since expanded greatly
upon in the scientific literature. Now the products
are sold through pharmacies and retail chains
with direct orders also being taken at the farm.
Nicholas’s NZ Coromandel Mountains Tea Tree
Oil product is mixed kanuka and manuka; the
oils have synergistic properties which combine
to give a wider spectrum of therapeutic effects.
As for Nicholas “I still fly” he says, and there
is enough on the farm to keep him busy. He
offers a final tip on one of his company’s
side-line products, a beautiful lavender soap
(he used to grow wild lavender on the farm
but now outsources the supply). “Put it under
your pillow and it will give you a marvellous
sleep! The Romans used to do it you know, put
lavender under their pillows...”
For more about these and other products – Honey
and Lavender Soap – see
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LOCAL DISTRIBUTORS INCLUDE
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Tairua Pharmacy and
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