Branching out from operating theatre to olive grove

When Dr Andrew Liley first visited New Zealand, he had no idea this country would eventually become home, or that he’d shift from the hectic world of medicine to a life on the land and owning an olive grove. But then, fate can be funny like that.

“I can’t remember ever wanting to do anything other than be a doctor. I probably had a romantic idea of what it was all about,” laughs Andy, a paediatric anaesthetist originally from the UK.

As young doctors, Andy and his wife Helen – who are now both MAS Members – ventured to New Zealand in 1998 when Andy had a one-year locum position as a consultant at Auckland’s Starship Children’s Hospital. While the couple thoroughly enjoyed their Kiwi experience, after a year Andy was due back in the UK to take up a position at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

A decade of working there followed, before his thoughts eventually turned back to the South Pacific. “I don’t know if I had burnout or what, but after 10 years I started increasingly looking for other options. That’s when we thought, ‘Why don’t we go back to New Zealand?’ It’s a great place to bring up children and the timing was just right,” says the father of 4, whose children were aged between 8 and 14 at the time. “So I got a job at Starship again and over we came.”

The family made a new home in Auckland and life was busy, with Helen working as a GP and Andy at the hospital. “I was working as a paediatric cardiac anaesthetist and I ran the acute pain service. I was involved with everything, which was great,” Andy recalls. “But then the same pattern happened. After 10 years I was starting to just not enjoy the job.”

From hospitals to harvesting

This time, however, Andy’s thoughts were not fixed on moving across the world, but across the motu and doing something very different. “Retirement was on the horizon and I’ve always wanted to work in a primary industry,” says Andy. The Lileys began looking at all kinds of different options, from avocados to apple orchards, before an olive grove in Wairarapa came onto their radar. “All of a sudden the idea of growing olives and producing a product that is actually kind of healthy floated my boat,” he says.

While it all seemed quite serendipitous, Covid-19 came along and stopped the pair from heading to visit their potential new home. Thankfully, when the lockdown lifted, the 6-hectare olive grove just outside Greytown was still available and after checking it out, the Liley’s decided to make the move.

At that point in 2020, the trees, which had been planted 25 years earlier, were just coming into sustained regular production. But while the grove itself was approaching maturity, Andy was still very much a novice in his new world. “It was either confidence or stupidity,” he says with a smile, “but I took on the whole thing – the growing of the olives, the marketing, the running of the business – with absolutely zero background.”

In preparation for the move, however, he did lots of reading, spoke to others in the industry, and helpfully the previous owners worked alongside him for the first year.

Not surprisingly, the world of olives bears little resemblance to Andy’s previous job. “With medicine you pitch up at 7.30am and everything’s provided for you. You do your job and at the end of the day you go home. Whereas this is 24/7, every day of the year.”

Andy also has support from Helen, who continues to work remotely in health while helping out in the business with sales and back-office tasks. “She’s not so keen on getting her hands dirty though,” he adds with a laugh.

New career, different challenges

Compared with his old role, the pace at Juno Olives is certainly different. “Coming from anaesthetics, there’s an immediacy to that, so you do something and you see the effect. Whereas here, I might not see the effect for a year or even three years down the track. That’s a completely different mindset.”

But even as he navigates this major change, Andy says there are lots of pros, like no longer sitting in traffic every morning, and getting to be outside in the elements and on the land in some way every day.

Though the weather also presents its challenges. “With this work you do get thrown curveballs over which you have no control,” says Andy. “Last year was a really bad harvest all over New Zealand. The weather played into it, the natural lifecycle of olives played into it, and it all just came together in a bad year. Sure it was stressful at the time, but I can't do anything about it so I shrug my shoulders and say, ‘OK, well maybe next year.’”

And when it all goes right, the rewards are rich, “When you’re at the press and you see that first drop of green oil come out and taste it and see what you’ve produced this year – well, I never tire of that. It’s just magical.”

As for the future, Andy says, “For now I’m happy doing what I’m doing. It’s physically hard work and it’ll not be long before I'm approaching an age where I might not be able to do this, but at the minute I’m fit and healthy. I’d like to think I can continue to improve the quantity and quality of what I produce and leave the grove in a better position than when I started.”