The De Molen mill in Foxton uses the power of notorious Manawatū winds to grind flour. Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
A westerly wind is rising, sweeping across the coastal plains of Manawatū and it's all hands to the mill in Foxton.
But the town's landmark 17th century-styled De Molen mill only needs two hands to set its blades turning, such is the simple but ingenious technology involved.
Trainee miller and chef, Jamie Henry, turns a big steering wheel to rotate the four and a half tonne cap at the very top, so that the blades are set to catch the breeze.
"Mills in the 17th century doubled as gymnasiums," Lindsay Sanson, another mill volunteer, laughs.
"Everything is just pinpoint and accurate so that one person can turn the mill on their own."
Jamie Henry is in training to operate the mill and also works as a chef at the Cafe de Molen Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
The De Molen mill, said to be the only working mill of its type in the southern hemisphere, is a replica of a traditional Dutch mill but made of New Zealand timber with a touch of Kiwi style ingenuity.
Laminated timber was used for some of the large beams, which confounded a team from the Netherlands who came back 15 years after it was built to give it a warrant of fitness.
"They were absolutely astonished to see how strong laminated timber is," Lindsay Sanson said.
With good timber hard to get hold of they were interested in using the technology to restore mills back home, he said.
The mill was built with New Zealand wood, including laminated timber, which astonished Dutch experts. Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
The De Molen mill was the brainchild of Dutch immigrants Dirk van Til and Jan Langen back in the 1990s.
After a huge community effort, it was opened in 2003, with the aim of bringing people off State Highway 1, according to Jan's daughter and Foxton Windmill Trust chair Judy Sanson.
"A lot of small towns in the 90s were dying so they thought 'let's build a windmill'.
"Not only does it pull people off, it's an amazing machine and it does something practical as well."
The landscape reminded them of home and the mill was also a way of celebrating the contribution of Dutch immigrants to New Zealand, many of whom came after the war, she said.
It can be seen from a distance and has drawn thousands of people off the highway including many Dutch visitors and New Zealanders of Dutch heritage, Lindsay said.
"We've had some older Dutch gentleman who've been on the balcony outside and they've been in tears just with the emotion it brings back to them.
"They may have left the Netherlands in the 50s and haven't had a chance to go back and this brings back a lot of, I guess, good and bad memories for them."
The De Molen mill draws thousands of people off SH1 including many from the Netherlands Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
Country Life was taken on a tour of the mill, up several sets of steep staircases to watch the cogs, turned by the sails, set the millstones slowly spinning ready for grinding wheat into flour.
With interest these days in the provenance of food, there was good demand for the flour, Judy said.
But the mill needs a permanent miller to meet the potential demand and train others to operate it, she said.
Stone ground floor produced by windpower Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
They have advertised in the Netherlands where traditional milling skills are being kept alive by the millers guild, Gilde van Vrijwillige Molenaars.
All going to plan, they hope a skilled miller will be here for the summer to help keep the De Molen sails turning.
Judy Sanson, chair of the Foxton Windmill Trust, with her husband and volunteer miller Lindsay Sanson Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
