Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
When Lew Pickens was 18, he had calluses on his hands like a 50-year-old and he was proud of them.
Now 83, he looks back happily on his days clearing bush and planting paddocks by hand north of WhangΔrei, hunting and driving bullocks in his spare time.
"I think of myself as much as a bushman or a hunter, as I do a farmer, really. Those bush skills allowed me to catch eels, catch goats.
"I can suss nature out pretty good."
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