It's hard to keep up with the expansions in Central Otago's fast-growing grape industry but one person who has his finger on the pulse is vineyard gridding contractor Lindsay Scott.

Lindsay has been responsible for laying out the vast majority of vineyards in this region since the late 1980s, drawing on skills he had earlier developed surveying grids for mineral claims in Australia. In the past year alone he set up 236,000 "pins" - markers for posts - mostly in Central Otago although he also works in Marlborough and Waiheke Island, and the occasional foray to Australia.

In the off-season Lindsay marks out tennis courts around Central Otago and Wanaka.

Lindsay has watched with interest the trends in vineyard plantings here - while over the past 10 years or so vineyards averaged 1.5 to 3ha in size, many are now 10 to 20ha. He says he seldom has direct plans to work from - he's mainly given instructions of planting direction and spacings and left to lay out the vineyard. The legacy of his precise work is rows and rows of posts lining up in all directions you look. But if you thought grids were mostly squares then think again - he's had to work out plant layouts on parallelograms, clockfaces, hips and half hips (a straight side with rows coming off) and vine rows following along the contour - these challenges are all his day's work.

One part of the Central Otago region really taking off is Bendigo - "I don't know if they are going to stop because places you wouldn't have thought would be planted are now proving successful." He says there's potentially 1000ha that could be planted in that subregion alone.

He's also in a great position to observe new ideas coming into the region, especially from established vineyards from abroad. One of the latest developments has fruiting wires less than 0.5m off the ground. Another new development he's got involved in is importing protective overhead canopies for fruit and vineyards - bird and hail cloth that is ideal as a complete cover for cherry orchards, market gardens and vineyards. Watch this space...

        

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