A Day in the Life of Rachel Taulelei

Rachel Taulelei (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Rārua, Ngāti Koata) is CEO of whānau-owned, Māori food and beverage producer Kono. A māmā, founder of sustainable seafood company Yellow Brick Road, director, and Chair of the APEC Business Advisory Council, an advocate for Māori business, our primary industries, and international trade. Rachel lives in Wellington but regularly works from Nelson and Blenheim.

5am This is one of my favourite times of the day with space to order thoughts. I flip between that, listening to First Up on RNZ, and thoughts of exercising. Listening wins. I chalk it up to starting the day smarter.

6am Time to wake my baby — technically a beautiful teenager, but they’re always your baby. She and her dad start the day quietly. Conversely, I like to fly into it noisily and with urgency (I think it drives them crazy) once my feet hit the floor. Common is on LOUD, and since it’s everyone’s lucky day, I bust out an impromptu morning jingle to get her moving. It was amazing…

7am First check in for the day, the airport. On goes the mask. Why did I put lipstick on this morning?! Fail.

9am Off to Motueka — Must. Get. Coffee. Find one at the cart on the main road, where all the real oil on industry happenings gets spilled.

10am Visiting our new māra/garden. And it’s insanely beautiful. A field full of sunflowers, and rows of taewa (potatoes), kūmara, kamokamo, kānga (corn), paukena (pumpkin) and pī (peas). We planted the māra as a way to reconnect whānau with their whenua — and to live ideas of tikanga-led regenerative agriculture. I find one kamokamo hiding in the garden that got missed in the harvest (winning!) and grab a couple of sunflowers. Gorgeous on both fronts.

11am Early lunch at The Smoking Barrel, a café we supply with our Tohu wines — they make legendary donuts, which naturally I eat to support the business. Naturally.

12pm A quick roadside teleconference re our APEC Business Advisory Council work. ABAC is the business voice into APEC and this call is about a digital symposium I’m opening in a couple of weeks — about how we use digital to unlock our economic recovery. The donut sugar high is still real.

1pm Into Hop Federation now, our craft brewery in Riuwaka. Quick tasting of the new seasonal beers – the Watermelon Sour is off the hook good, so I wangle a couple of riggers direct from the tanks. Insta propaganda follows — so proud of all that our team does so I love a good social shout out.

2pm I drop into the recently reopened and reinvigorated Riwaka Pub — the quintessential country tavern. Awesome food, killer music, great drinks (yes, I am biased), and all community. Quick chat re supporting an upcoming event with some of NZ’s best homegrown musicians.

3pm  Grabbed an actual watermelon from Frasers at the bottom of Tākaka Hill to go with my Watermelon Sour. No idea why — but the Hop Fed guys suggested it and so I did. Felt like they knew something I didn’t which is entirely possible because it was sooo good.

5pm Arrive in beautiful Mōhua Golden Bay — I always feel incredibly tau (calm) when I’m here. There’s something deeply spiritual about this place. Maybe it’s because our tūpuna were here, maybe because it’s so stunning, or that I can see our team harvesting our mussels from here. Perhaps it’s because the light is so particular, or the air is so clear that you can see Taranaki Mounga on a good day. Could be all of the above, but I love it.