Picking Blueberries at Blueberry Country NZ

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Blueberry Country is New Zealand’s largest family-owned blueberry orchard group, and I was lucky enough to be invited to one of their orchards this summer.

A friend and I headed down to the Ngatea Orchard from Auckland, excited to check out the farm and pick some delicious blueberries. While there are four orchards around the country, we decided the Ngatea farm was the one for us, and we just snuck in with about a week to go before they close for the season.

The Ngatea season is from December through to Waitangi Weekend each year, though the other orchards may be different, so be sure to check their opening days and times.

What to expect when you visit

I can’t speak for all the Blueberry Country orchards, but I’m going to assume they’re similar.

We arrived at Ngatea farm on a bright sunny day in January, and were directed to Gate 4 where the picking was happening. We were greeted and given a bucket with a brown paper bag in – the blueberries were to go in the BAG not the bucket – and told to “pick between the blue flags”.

I’m going to assume that said blue flags move depending on where the Pick Your Own is happening that day. Probably to spread out the pick and make sure that the trees have time to recover, so that not everything is stripped in one area.

So we followed instructions and headed down a row to get to picking. When we had filled up about half the bag and were dying of the heat, we headed back out of the rows, jumped back in the car and drove just around to the cafe and weigh station.

Your bucket is then weighed, and you pay based on the weight of the blueberries you picked*. Then, instead of decanting the blueberries, you simply took the brown paper bag home with you. We picked about 2.8kg, then enjoyed a real fruit ice cream and sat under the tree before calling it a day and heading back to Auckland.

Where is Blueberry Country?

Blueberry Country has four farms around New Zealand: Ngatea, Ohaupo, Otautau, and Waipu.

What to take with you

Definitely a hat and sunscreen! It gets really warm in the rows of trees, and as you’ll be visiting in summer, that NZ sun is a scorcher. Wear comfy shoes as some of the ground is a bit uneven, and make sure you’ve got a drink bottle with you, too. If you’ve decided to buy some frozen berries, then be sure to take a chilly bin with you, so you can transport them home easily.

Do I have to pick my own blueberries?

Nope! If you want to just go and buy blueberries, you can! There is a shop there where you can buy Premium Blueberries, and also what they call Daily Boost Blueberries, which are those imperfect berries that are great for baking and smoothies. There are also frozen berries you can pick up. Soon you’ll be able to order online, so keep an eye on this page for that.

Have you visited Blueberry Country? Or another blueberry picking farm in New Zealand? I’d love to hear about it!

*Blueberry Country were incredibly generous to offer us a free pick as a thank you for mentioning them in another blog post about berry picking in New Zealand. They even threw in free ice cream. Thank you! They didn’t ask me to write this follow-up blog post, but that’s what I do. So here we are. 🙂