Ashburton Courier: May 07, 2020

Page 6, Ashburton's The Courier, Thursday May 7, 2020
Harry home delivers
Local news at www.starnews.co.nz
Young pilot joins
aviation museum
By Mick Jensen
From Page 1
NZ BioGrains supplies organic
and biological flour and stock food
products, as well as organicallygrown
grains, pulses and nuts
throughout the country.
Four of their organically certified
suppliers are from arable farmers in
Mid Canterbury.
The company also does its own
deliveries from one end of the South
Island to the other in atrusty Isuzu,
which has done over 500,000km.
The Isuzu, the latest in the fleet,
will be used until it retires; just like
those preceding it.
It can carry up to five tonne of
product.
“We were quite lucky, we’ve been
doing our own deliveries around the
South Island for 30 years,” he said.
Mr Lowe and his wife Mary own
the business, which has operated
from aDobson Street site for the
past 33 years.
He said most stock food deliveries
were already dropped, contactless, at
designated sheds on farm.
And that contactless delivery had
continued to front doors with
household products sales, including
flour that had noticeably changed
from small orders of 1.5kg, to much
larger quantities of 25kg.
Home delivery, no problem: Harry Lowe, of NZ BioGrains, and his
trusty Isuzu are regulars travelling South Island roads.
Most people were pretty relaxed,
he said, once they knew who he was
and why he was at their property.
‘‘Some people are so grateful to
get (their delivery); that's where you
get your energy from,’’ he said.
He said an influx of hundreds of
orders in the lead­up to lockdown
sparked abrief shutdown on
ordering until it “fell into place”.
In normal times, the business had
asteady market pattern with
customers ordering monthly or
weekly, however there was no normal
right now due to Covid­19
restrictions.
“We’re taking it for what it is, we
don’t have achoice,” he said.
As busy has it had been, he was
grateful for acouple of days respite
over Anzac Weekend before heading
back into work for the next leg,
although at the reduced Alert Level
3.
He said the large size of the mill
worked in favour of social distancing
rules at work and allowed staff to
keep to their own areas.
And customers picking up product
can now do so at the front door.
Lachlan Kingan has landed himself
aplace on the committee of the
Ashburton Aviation Museum and
is the youngest member by more
than 50 years.
The 17­year­old Ashburton
College student has been flying
high since his first flight at the age
of 11 and is aregular at the
Ashburton Airfield.
He has flying in his blood. His
great­grandfather was abomber
pilot, his grandfather Derek
Aldridge has his wings and was first
president of Mid Canterbury Aero
Club, and his own dad Graeme also
learned to fly.
Lachlan’s flying mentor is
Ashburton Aviation Pioneers flight
instructor Les Vincent, who also
happens to be his third cousin.
Mr Vincent has taught two of his
sons to fly and both now have
careers as Boeing captains.
Lachlan’s aim is to become a
commercial airline pilot and he’s
on the right flight path to achieve it.
The Year 13 student said his
latest flying qualification was an
advanced microlight certificate
with passenger rating.
Although there was not flying at
the moment, he was aiming for
more future flying time and his
private pilot license.
Lachlan said he was pleased to
have been asked on to the aviation
museum committee and said there
was alot of knowledge he could tap
Lachlan Kingan with instructor
Les Vincent after completing
his first solo flight, age 16.
(Photo Warren Janett)
into.
‘‘I’ll be offering input from a
younger person’s perspective and
I’m looking forward to it.’’
Ashburton Aviation Museum
president Warren Janett said
Lachlan was avery familiar face at
the airfield.
He was good company, had a
good head on his shoulders and was
prepared to give up some of his
spare time to lend ahand.
Mr Janett said most of the
committee and the museum’s
members were over the age of 70,
so it was good to inject some new
blood.
Working together to
keep our community
connected
EA Networksisbackonthejob completing essentialnetwork maintenance
andupgrades in Mid Canterbury.This will ensureasafe, reliable supply of
electricity in your area.
You’ll see our crews outand about, completing this work whilefollowing
strict operationalguidelines.Ifaplanned outage may affect your area
we’ll contact youdirectly.Thank youfor yourpatience and understanding.
We aregetting back on thetoolstoensurewe
keep thepower on in our community.