Our Story
We are Paddy and Heidie or otherwise known as Sunshine and Sunshine. We have a blended family of 5 children and over the years they have all worked and helped at the Litchi Festival, so you could say it’s a family affair. It all started when Paddy converted an old compound on a family farm in 2005 into a Rustic Resort called Cane Cutters. It could sleep a hundred people and hosted many big events like weddings, Birthday parties, teambuilding functions, the annual Quad4Quads event, the Sharks Rugby players, and even our daughter’s wedding.
The farm also had a beautiful orchard with litchi trees over a hundred years old and walking through the orchard one day Paddy came up with the bright idea of hosting a festival where people could bring their families to pick their own Litchis. And that in a nutshell is how the first ever litchi Picking festival was started at Cane Cutters Resort in 2005. Just to add in a rather funny story, in our third year we had a leopard sighting in the orchard which had everyone on their toes, but sadly it disappeared during the night, never to be seen again.
The Harvest
The first couple of years we only had a few people but with hard work, determination, and the ever-increasing reach of social media the news spread, and we managed to build an amazing group of Litchi Followers, even some that have been supporting us for over 10 years now. Paddy handles the set up, and the litchi side of things and I manage the admin and social media, and together we organize and manage the two-week Festival. We have an awesome bunch of students as our staff and litchi Crew, some have been with us for years and love the time spent together in the Orchard and having a holiday job never hurts.
We have created an annual event to give back to our community where we host 50 orphans for the day, providing food, drinks and a fun outdoor litchi picking experience. When Cane cutters was sold, we had to move but managed to source another Orchard, where we have been for some years now, this year however has taken us on another journey, and we are happy to say we now find ourselves on a Beautiful Big Orchard next door to The Hidden Forest and we are extremely grateful and extend our thanks for your loyal support, are very excited to host you once again at Verbara Estate.
THE HIDDEN FOREST WILDLIFE SANCTUARY
The Hidden Forest Wildlife Sanctuary is not to be missed whether KwaZulu-Natal is your home or you are visiting on holiday.
Our stunning 23-hectare forest is a safe forever home for a variety of indigenous and exotic wildlife. Our lemurs, gibbon and exotic monkeys (capuchin monkeys, squirrel monkeys, spider monkeys, howler monkeys) were raised in captivity, primarily in zoos or as people’s pets and now finally have the opportunity to live cage-free with their own kind. Our forest isn’t only home to exotic primates though, keep your eyes peeled and you may also see Natal Duiker, Bush Buck, banded mongoose and abundant indigenous birdlife.