The Nugget: Stu Muir

Dairy farmer Stu Muir talks like he lives his life – at about a thousand miles an hour. It’s not that he goes on; he’s just passionate about a lot of things. As a sixth generation farmer on family land at Aka Aka on the northern side of Port Waikato, the environment is everything to him. This sense of Kaitiaki or guardianship of the land was immersed in his upbringing surrounded by Tainui neighbours, from whom he learnt and still speaks fluent Te Reo.

Stu’s the future of dairy farming, comfortable on the land, but equally at home wearing his 3 Wise Men light grey and blue check merino suit to various community and board meetings – including at Dairy NZ where he holds an Associate Director role.

His own farm includes 60ha of wetlands which have become a passion project involving planting over 8,000 trees and 40,000 plants around the lake and surrounding hillsides; clearing rivers; and eradicating weeds and pests to regenerate a vital part of the farm’s ecosystem. Today the area teems with birds, plants and visitors. Stu loves it most when local schools come on class trips to the farm to connect back to the land.

Recently he and his wife Kim built a visitor’s cottage on the property from timber that was lying around the farm. Called Te Papa Eco Cottage, it’s a little slice of off-the-grid paradise that runs on solar and gas with the “world’s greatest outdoor bath”. Book a stay there and with a bit of luck, Stu might even pop in with some duck, bacon or whitebait, and no doubt a sackful of stories. You may never leave.

Somehow when he’s not doing all this, he finds time for surfing, playing guitar and hanging out with his four kids and Kim. Friends paired them up due to their mutual love of adventurous travel. The fact that Kim had just ridden a bike from Ireland to Morocco and Stu had just spent a year “cruising ‘round” India, Pakistan and Afghanistan suggests they were always going to be a pretty good match.

Yep it’s a full life for Stu but he wouldn’t have it any other way. Here’s a few questions he answered for us – cut down from his original length answers of course.