Oruaiti River · Mangonui Harbour

Six hundred trees above the harbour

Single estate extra virgin olive oil, grown, harvested and pressed in the Far North – nothing added, nothing imported.

Oil can and oil bottles on a table with the Mangonui harbour in the background

Our grove

Planted in 2000, the grove became part of our family in 2014.

Since then Ewen and Lesley have tended around 600 olive trees on the slope between the Oruaiti River and the harbour, with one aim: to make the best New Zealand grown extra virgin olive oil we can.

Everything in the bottle comes off these trees. We pick, we press, we bottle – and we put the harvest date on the label so you know exactly how fresh it is.

Ewen checking olives on a tree in the grove.

Ewen checking the fruit ahead of harvest. Picking usually starts in autumn, when the olives are just turning.

What grows here

Six olive varieties, with Frantoio and NZ J5 forming the backbone of our oil. We also grow Nocellara del Belice for small-scale table olives, chosen for its size and flavour.

Planted
2000 - in our family since 2014
Trees
Around 600, all on one estate
Oil varieties
Frantoio and NZ J5, with four others in smaller quantities
Table olives
Nocellara del Belice, cured in small batches
Also in the orchard
More than ten fruit varieties - persimmon, tropical guava and tamarillo do particularly well in the Northland climate
Registered with
Buy New Zealand Made and Grown in New Zealand
Lesley gathering in a net full of freshly picked olives.
Stacked crates of freshly picked olives.
Blue harvest bins labelled by hand with the grower's name and variety.

From tree to press in a day

Fresh oil starts with fruit that gets to the press quickly. We harvest with a tractor-mounted shaker and catching frame, then the fruit goes straight to a local press – no long storage, no blending with anyone else’s oil.

Tractor with a catching frame set up beneath an olive tree.
Harvest

Shaken, not stripped

The catching frame opens around the trunk so the fruit falls clean, without bruising or sitting on the ground.

A pile of freshly picked olives gathered on the harvest net.
Same day

Straight off the net

Olives are picked early in the season, while there is still plenty of green fruit – that is where the peppery, herbaceous character comes from.

Crates of picked olives
Same day

Into crates

Picked fruit is tipped into crates and driven down to the press that afternoon, and we bring home the oil pressed from the day before.

Stainless steel drums of new season oil strapped to a trailer.
Then

Cold pressed nearby

Oil comes home in sealed stainless drums, settles, and is bottled to order so it spends as little time as possible on a shelf.

The shaker and catching frame working through a row.

Judged, not just claimed

Awards are one way of showing what is in the bottle. Our oil is entered each year in the Oliveti Northland Olive Oil Awards, where it is assessed against the International Olive Council’s chemical and sensory standards.

Six consecutive gold medals, and Best in Show in 2022 and 2025.

Six Oliveti Olive Oil Awards gold medals, one for each year from 2021 to 2026.
Oliveti Best in Show trophy and framed certificates beside bottles of Oruaiti River Olives oil in the grove.
  • 2026Two Best in Class and Gold, Oliveti Northland
  • 2025Best in Show, Best in Class and Gold
  • 2024Gold
  • 2023Gold
  • 2022Best in Show and Gold
  • 2021Gold

Our oil is also on the table at some of the country’s best kitchens.

Logos of Duke of Marlborough Hotel, Casita Miro, Kingi, Paris Butter, Sage and The Lindis.

Taste this year’s harvest

Bottled to order and shipped anywhere in New Zealand. Free shipping on orders over $120.

Shop the oil