Parsley, dill, Mark Blumsky and thyme

Former Wellington mayor Mark Blumsky’s dill should be hitting New Zealand shelves soon.

Since stepping down as high commissioner to Niue 21⁄2 years ago, Blumsky has been keeping busy with a range of businesses including restaurants, a mini golf course, a charter business and Nuie’s largest hydroponics operation.

In the operation – the size of three football fields – he grows a range of produce including tomatoes, eggplants, pineapples and herbs.

He is now working on getting the necessary paperwork to import basil, coriander, parsley, and dill to New Zealand under the name Niue Fresh.

If it goes ahead, it will be a big deal for Niue, which is heavily reliant on imports. The only produce that it exports is vanilla and some taro.

Blumsky said he finished up as high commissioner to Niue more than two years ago after his three-year contract ended six months late.

Blumsky was Wellington mayor for two terms from 1995 to 2001, before entering Parliament as an opposition National Party list MP in 2005.

He quit national politics in 2008 after just one term, disillusioned over the ‘‘tribal’’ nature of the profession.

After a two-year hiatus from politics, the former salesman and founder of Mischief shoes, was appointed New Zealand’s new high commissioner to Niue in 2010.

In January 2012, he Niuean bride, Pauline. married his