Amanda Currie’s professional focus now centers on nurturing microbes—a stark shift from her earlier career in financial regulation, where she analyzed data in spreadsheets. Today, her work revolves around examining soil on Tinwald Farm, a 745-hectare property located in Central Otago, roughly an hour’s drive from Queenstown.
Corporate Exodus to Soil Science
Shifting from Corporate Roles to Regenerative Agriculture
During a panel discussion at WiT Queenstown titled “Food, Identity & Tourism,” Currie shared how her perspective transformed. “I found myself looking at soil under a microscope,” she explained. “And when I did that, I realised the soil was really alive. That changed my entire perspective around farming.”
Currie and her husband, Adrian, who previously led Booking.com’s Asia Pacific operations, abandoned their corporate careers to establish Tinwald Farm. The estate combines regenerative practices with livestock management, including cattle, sheep, and horses, alongside a single-vineyard Pinot Noir production. Adrian oversees winemaking, while Jason coordinates grazing rotations for 250 Angus cattle and 1,500 sheep, ensuring animal movement aligns with soil health. A recent observation highlighted this dynamic when Jason’s dog guided the flock downhill, demonstrating the direct impact of livestock placement on land vitality. Meanwhile, Rob meticulously prunes vines by hand, emphasizing a commitment to “balance” in viticulture. The Overlooked Core of Sustainability
Currie’s research stands out because her efforts extend beyond traditional farming; she prioritizes the microscopic life within topsoil, framing it as “protecting the whole planet, not just running the farming system.” The visible elements of Tinwald, the vineyards, grazing cattle, and scenic horse-drawn carriage rides, rest on an unseen foundation that most overlook. This invisible layer mirrors the broader theme of resilience, which emerged repeatedly at WiT Queenstown, often discussed alongside artificial intelligence.
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The conference showed how resilience operates as an unnoticed backbone, only recognized when examined closely, much like soil microbes under a microscope.
Aviation Industry Resilience
Contrasting Strategies in Aviation Resilience
Nikhil Ravishankar, CEO of Air New Zealand, opened the WiT Queenstown event by drawing parallels between his industry and Currie’s work, despite their vastly different sectors. He acknowledged the airline’s challenges: one-fifth of its fleet remained grounded for years due to Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce engine failures, leaving roughly $2 billion in aircraft idle in storage, with projected losses in the millions.
“When you are in New Zealand and you have only 115 planes and your competitors have 1,500, 1,600 planes, you just have to be smarter,” he stated. His proposed solution hinges on technology, particularly integrating fragmented airline systems, fleet planning, network scheduling, crew management, and maintenance, currently operating in isolation. Ravishankar positioned AI as a “universal optimizer,” analogous to Currie’s microbial networks but applied to corporate software infrastructure.
In contrast, Paul Scurrah, CEO of Fiji Airways, advocates for prioritizing employee and customer well-being. His approach stems from leading Virgin Australia through COVID-19 into administration. “It teaches you that you should have an aspiration for being as happy as you can in the circumstances you’re in,” he said. “It’s back to optimism… at the core of happiness there’s a level of gratitude.” Many would argue that gratitude and happiness are fundamental to building resilience.
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People Over Technology
Human-Centric Resilience Over Automation
When asked about resilience, James Thornton, CEO of Intrepid Travel, dismissed technology as the primary driver. A North Ridge Partners report highlighted the travel industry’s ability to recover from 19 past disruptions. “Technology does enable a degree of resilience, but ours comes from our people,” he said. “We’re a people business, 4,000 people around the world, hundreds of collective years of travel experience, our own destination management companies in over 40 countries.” I then asked Thornton how he’d rethink the purpose of travel, so that the industry becomes more resilient. “It would be that travel was designed to benefit communities, not just customers,” he said. “The way we’ve all grown up designing travel is for the benefit of the traveller, give them a wonderful time, they come back, that’s an NPS of 83. But travel doesn’t have the equilibrium right now. Communities aren’t sufficiently benefiting, and when they are, it’s too infrequent, and it goes to too few people.”
Parallels Between Soil Health and Industry Foundations
Hidden Foundations of Thriving Systems
Currie’s insights suggest that thriving systems, whether farms or travel industries, rely on unseen foundations. Just as healthy soil sustains visible agricultural outputs, resilience in travel may depend on stronger community ties, deeper relationships, and balanced visitor impacts rather than surface-level technological fixes. Like soil microbes, these foundational elements often go unnoticed until their absence disrupts everything above.