After years of experimentation, Picton couple Mike and Antonia Radon have perfected the cultivation of paua 'pearls'.
The round blue pearls – which take 3 or 4 years to form within a paua shell – sell for anywhere between $300 and $5,000, Mike tells Jesse Mulligan.
Pearls cultivated by Arapawa Blue Pearls Photo: Arapawa
Mike grew up in the abalone business in California and Dreamed of farming abalone for meat in New Zealand.
28 years ago, he and Antonia moved into a homestead on the Picton foreshore – "the first house you see when you come across on the ferry" – and started up a land-based paua farm on nearby Arapawa Island, at the entrance to Cook Strait.
The farm was already blessed with "super-good water quality" but Mike, an experienced diver, also wanted to provide the paua with some of the "wave action" they enjoy.
Then on a trip to Hamner Springs with his kids, he saw a bucket dumping water into the kiddie pool and got the idea of copying it.
The Arapawa farm's "bucket system" now periodically dumps a surge of water into the paua tanks to keep them happy, Mike says.
Mike and Antonia Radon Photo: Arapawa
Originally, the Radon's paua farm consisted of just four tanks, including one the couple used for paua pearl experiments.
Now they have 250 tanks housing paua with pearls growing in them.
When it's time to harvest, these pearls will eventually be made into jewellery for their brand Arapawa Blue Pearls and the meat sold.
Growing paua for its meat alone proved too expensive and time-consuming, Mike says.
"Even though the meat is quite valuable – around $100 a kilo – [farming it] costs a lot and takes a long time. You're looking at five years for a harvestable product."
Abalone pearls, commonly known as mabé or blister pearls, are made by inserting a small mould into each shell and then being patient while the mollusc does the slow work of creation, Mike says.
"We insert a [round] shape into the paua shell… and attach it to the shell on the inside. And the animal just builds a shell over it."
While lots of other people around the world have experimented with cultured abalone pearls, Arapawa's Cook Strait-cultivated pearls are a stand-out because of their colours, Mike says.
"Luckily for us, New Zealand abalone probably has the most beautiful shell in the world."
