Putting pinot alongside merino in Cromwell District, Central Otago, New Zealand: Rural amenity and the making of the global countryside

Abstract

The paper draws on recent debates in the study of the space economy to explicate the development of a newly differentiated global countryside. Using a case study of the Cromwell District in the Central Otago region of New Zealand, we show how a place long valued for its natural and recreational amenity has been re-assembled in recent times by new configurations of actors, some well-established in the region, and others more recent amenity migrants from within New Zealand and overseas, engaging in regionally novel combinations of investment and economic practice. These actors have exploited Cromwell District's amenity repertoire in a process of creative enhancement by putting vineyards and wine-making in a spectacular high country landscape. Importantly, the result of the early stages of these developments has been further to enhance the region's amenity repertoire, attracting more migrants and investment. Our study shows therefore how places can and do 're-resource' in processes of globalisation and amenity migration, in this case by developing new networks associated with the international wine trade, regional and global flows of domestic and international tourists, real estate development and the growth of related service industries. As a consequence we have been able to engage constructively with very recent interpretations of amenity migration and rural economic, social and landscape change in the Antipodes.