Fruitbowl - Fresh Ideas from Hawke's Bay

I moved back to the Hawkes Bay at Christmas 2008. Our first child was turning 5 and we always wanted our children to experience the benefits of growing up in the provinces.

We'd been coming up to the Bay for the last 6 summers and had noticed how while it was still relaxed, the Bay was becoming more and more sophisticated. There was great coffee, excellent food and a more and more people I'd met through business spending significant time here.

Once we got established I started to meet some great local people. Some who had been here all along, some returning and many recent imports. Becoming a regular on the frequent flights to Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch and beyond I met more and more smart people, with significant careers, but had also captured the lifestyle of the Bay. Getting on to the plane at the end of the day in Auckland you see lots of smiley faces happy to be heading back to our part of the world.

The world is changing. The internet and investments in fibre mean that you really can work from anywhere. You can balance family, lifestyle and career.

The idea behind Fruitbowl was to create a venue to share stories of what's happening in the Hawkes Bay. Let people within the Bay and outside see the great things going on. I hope it will allow people to connect and help each other out, and also attract new businesses and families into the region so it can continue to grow strongly.

We invite anyone to comment, and especially encourage local businesses to join up and share their stories or simply let other know what you're doing.

Thank you to the team at Mogul for building this site. And thank you to the foundation sponsors who contributed a bit of money to allow us to do this properly and hopefully create a useful resource for making the Hawkes Bay even better.