Win months in the making

The 26 year-old is a senior leading hand at Llewellyn Horticulture based in Hastings

The announcement was made by Dr Charlotte Severne, the Māori Trustee and chief executive of Te Tumu Paeroa at the Ahuwhenua Trophy awards dinner in Rotorua recently.

The two other finalists in the competition were 24 year-old Brandon Cross of Tauranga who works as trainee orchard manager for the large kiwifruit orchard management and post-harvest company Seeka, and 25 year-old Finnisha Tuhiwai who is packhouse manager for Maungatapere Berries, located west of Whangarei in a rural township of Maungatapere.

Severne presented Akonga with the winner’s trophy and congratulated him on his achievement. All three finalists were presented with koru trophies and certificates by the sponsors of the award, Te Puni Kokiri, Primary ITO, Te Tumu Paeroa and Horticulture New Zealand.

Award judge Aaron Hunt, from Te Tumu Paeroa, says the standard of entrants in the inaugural competition for horticulture was very high and also reflects the number of young Māori who are making successful careers in horticulture

Maatutaera Akonga told Rural News that he didn’t expect to win the award, but says it was a wonderful evening and had the time of his life. He says he got pushed in to entering the competition by his mentors who urged him to go beyond where he had been before.

“So, I thought I would push through and give this one as go as well,” he says. “It was different in that past competitions last just a day and are over by the end of the night. But with Covid, this one has been months now in the making.”

Akonga says because of Covid, the judging and final event went on for several months longer than planned and wondering what the outcome might be was always at the back of its mind. He worked through Covid, but says he managed well having to deal with additional health and safety and compliance issues such as social distancing.

“Covid hasn’t affected us so much, but it will affect us more next year,” he says.

A feature of the presentation to Akonga was that after his acceptance speech, in which he congratulated his fellow finalists and thanked the organisers, his wife Margaret sang a beautiful waiata, which drew great applause from the 750 people at the function.

As for the future, Akonga says it’s upwards and onwards.