Sofitel Auckland Viaduct to Pokeno private car — Pimchanok's business trip

The February sun was already beating down on the Viaduct as I pulled up to the Sofitel. Even that early, the city was humming, the ferries were starting their regular chugs across the harbour, and you could smell the brunch crowd heading for the waterfront restaurants. My passenger, a woman named Pimchanok S, was standing just inside the lobby doors, looking out. She had one of those neat, compact suitcases that suggests she packs light and knows exactly what she needs.

She told me her work was in international trade, and that this trip south was to visit a new supplier based just outside Pokeno. It’s funny how you meet people through work but rarely do you get into the nitty-gritty of what that work actually entails, especially when it’s a little outside your own direct experience. Auckland to Pokeno isn’t exactly a long haul, a little over an hour down State Highway 1, but it’s enough time for a bit of quiet reflection, both for me and, I suspect, for her.

We set off south, the Auckland traffic easing as we got past the city centre. The familiar stretch through Onehunga and then Manukau, watching the sprawl give way to more rolling green hills. We passed the turn-off for SH2 towards the Coromandel, heading instead towards Bombay. She was quiet for a while, just watching the landscape. I often find people are like that in the car, especially on these shorter trips; they’re transitioning, moving from one space to another, and there’s a sort of buffer time where they’re not quite in one place and not yet in the next. It’s a good time for them to just *be*.

As we got onto the open motorway towards Pukekohe, the wider, flatter plains of Franklin began to unfold. Interspersed with the new housing developments that seem to pop up everywhere these days, you still get the sense of open farmland, of cows grazing and the vast blue sky that seems to stretch further down here. She eventually started talking, more to herself than to me, about how different New Zealand was from her home in Bangkok. The air, she said, felt cleaner, even with the traffic. She spoke of the heat and the humidity of Thailand and how she appreciated the relative dryness here, even in the height of summer.

She mentioned that her company was looking to diversify its sourcing of certain agricultural products, and this supplier in Pokeno was a potential key partner. It wasn't just about buying and selling; there was a deeper element, I gathered, about building relationships, ensuring ethical sourcing, and understanding the nuances of how things are grown and produced here. She’d clearly done her research, and it wasn’t just about the bottom line. She seemed genuinely interested in the practicalities of farming in this area, the soil types, the rainfall, the challenges farmers faced.

We saw a few other drivers pulling over at the service stations near Hampton Downs; the usual coffee and toilet stops. I kept my own schedule, knowing Pokeno was just a little further on. The land started to become a bit more undulating as we approached our destination. She pointed out a particularly picturesque farm, full of old trees. She said she lived in a high-rise in Bangkok, and while she loved the convenience, she often missed the sight of so much green and the feeling of space.

Pulling up just outside Pokeno, the driveway led to a modern, well-kept farmstead. It was exactly the sort of place you’d expect a significant agricultural business to be located – functional, clean, with land stretching out behind it. She thanked me for the ride, her expression thoughtful, as if the journey itself had been a chance to gather her thoughts before the business at hand. I watched her walk up the path towards the farmhouse, a small figure against the wide landscape, her business trip a small but significant connection between two distant parts of the world. I headed back north, the road empty ahead of me, the faint scent of damp earth and summer growth in the air.