Puketiti Station - The Story of an East Cape Sheep Station and the 180-year-old Williams family legacy by Bee Dawson

$25.00 NZD

Category: Agriculture | Reading Level: very good

The story of Puketiti Station, the 180-year-old Williams family legacy and how an airline pilot and his wife from Auckland inherited a new life farming on the East Cape. Puketiti Station, the Category 1 historic homestead, cobbled stables, and covenanted gardens at its heart lie hidden above the sands a nd breakers of the east coast, 100 kilometres north of Gisborne, on the road to Ruatoria. Puketiti was once the headquarters of the enormous 40,000-acre Waipiro block, first purchased by missionary William Williams' son James in 1883. Passed down through successive generations of the Williams blood line, Puketiti found itself in unsuspecting hands when the eccentric Des Williams' died a bachelor in 1997. Attending his tangi were 22 godchildren. One of them, 27-year-old Dan Russell, hitchhiked to Puketiti from Auckland with nothing more in mind than to pay his respects. But on his arrival Dan was greeted with the news that would change his life forever. He had inherited the entire station u the homestead, its historic outbuildings, 3000-hectares of productive hill country and nearly 20,000 stock units, all debt free. Dan had visited the farm only a handful of times in his lifetime, and with a career as an airline pilot planned out before him, Dan and his city-girl wife from Auckland, Anna, were in disbelief. Des Williams' only wish was that Dan keep Puketiti as a working sheep and cattle station. He feared others might succumb to the prolific offshore corporate investment in forestry threatening the historic stations on the east coast. Over 15 years on, Dan and Anna are still coming to terms with their new lives on this most remote and romantic of New Zealand's historic stations, a traditional way of life in the backblocks of beyond, true to the Williams legacy, but it hasn't come easy. ...Show more

Heart of the Mackenzie - The Glenmore Station Story by Matt Philp

$25.00 NZD

Category: Agriculture | Reading Level: very good

The gripping story of an iconic New Zealand high country sheep station in the heart of the South Island's MacKenzie Country. There are two ways into the MacKenzie Country: via Fairlie and Burke's Pass or over the Lindis. Whichever way you drive, when you enter the MacKenzie you know you are somewhere ve ry different and very special. It's a huge basin surrounded by sere hills, it's dry as a bone, and it feels somehow ancient. The sky is a wide blue dome. In spring lupins blaze in the roadside ditches. In winter those hills are dusted with snow. It feels as timeless and untouched as the Maniototo, and as empty. This is where James McKenzie filched his sheep from the squattocrats, stealing through the night with his clever dog. This is where the night sky is so dark that it's now protected under world heritage status. This is where battles have been fought over irrigation and water rights. This is where, on Glenmore Station, which runs up one side of Lake Tekapo all the way to the boundary with Mount Cook National Park, the Murrays have farmed for 100 years and four generations. Third-generation Glenmore runholders Jim and Anne Murray have recently retired from the station, and their son Will and his wife Emily now run the property. Jim's father was instrumental in building the Church of the Good Shepherd beside the lake at Tekapo. Jim inherited the station in the 1960s when he was 21 and his father died of sudden heart attack. Glenmore is renowned merino stud and it was the first station to supply merino wool to Icebreaker. Jim Murray sat on Icebreaker's board for some time and most of the Glenmore clip still goes there. Very interesting scientific work is also going on at Glenmore. Will and Ems, who have three young children, are a great example of a dynamic young high country farming couple in the modern era. The Murrays are an incredible clan: hardworking, determined, innovative, visionary and community-focussed. Theirs in an amazing station, set in tough country, and the story of Glenmore epitomises New Zealand's high country spirit. ...Show more

High Country Legacy - Four Generations of Aspinalls at Mt Aspiring Station by Alex Hedley

$25.00 NZD

Category: Agriculture | Reading Level: very good

Mt Aspiring Station is set in the craggy backblocks of Otago, between Lake Wanaka and the Southern Alps. The Aspinall family have farmed in this tough and unforgiving environment — on slopes so steep that horses cannot climb — since 1920. Their homestead sits by the confluence of the east and west branc hes of the icy Matukituki River and marks the last occupied home before entering New Zealand’s most pristine natural wilderness. The current owners, Randall and Allison Aspinall, returned to the farm in 2010 and worked alongside Randall;s father, John, an Otago high-country legend, died unexpectedly in November 2011. They are carrying on the work of previous generations, knowing that it is a way of life fast disappearing in the face of conservation, sustainable development and technology. Behind these changes remains an unyielding love of the land and a duty to protect it. Today over 80,000 tourists and visitors pass over Mt Aspiring Station every year. HIGH COUNTRY LEGACY tells the story of this stunningly beautiful part of New Zealand through the personalities so entwined with the valley: mountaineers, trampers and climbers, conservationists, geologists, deerstalkers, possum-hunters and fishermen, and the Aspinall family themselves. ...Show more

Station Life in New Zealand by Lady Barker

$95.00 NZD

Category: Agriculture | Reading Level: good

The Keys to Prosperity - The Centennial History of Southland Frozen Meat Ltd by C. A. Lind

$25.00 NZD

Category: New Zealand | Reading Level: very good

When the Farm Gates Opened - The Impact of Rogernomics on Rural New Zealand by Neal Wallace

$12.00 NZD

Category: Agriculture | Reading Level: very good

The economic reforms launched by the 1984 David Lange-led Labour government changed New Zealand forever. Agriculture bore the brunt of those changes and Rogernomics, the name by which the era came to be known, became an historical reference point for the primary sector: a defining and pivotal moment whe n financial subsidies abruptly ended and farming learned to live without government influence, interference or protection. The changes were more sweeping and wide ranging than anything farmers and farming had expected. Some adjusted, some did not. Farmers downed tools in protest, many were forced from their land, families split, there was a spike in suicides and stories spread of farmers hiding machinery from repossession agents. Twenty years on, there has been little documentation of what is folklore and what is fact. This gripping and moving book, by award-winning agricultural journalist Neal Wallace, relates the story of a rural sector battered and bruised by rapid change. It traces the period building up to the economic changes by talking to political and sector leaders, and the most important contribution comes from interviews with those most affected: farmers and community leaders who recollect and reveal their often very painful experiences. ...Show more

Matanaka - Otago's First Farm by Hardwicke Knight; Peter Coutts

$25.00 NZD

Category: Regional | Reading Level: very good

Draught Horse Power by Cliff Lea

$20.00 NZD

Category: Agriculture | Reading Level: near fine

Two Shakes of a Lamb's Tail: The Diary of a Country Vet by Danielle Hawkins

$12.00 NZD

Category: Agriculture | Reading Level: very good

Two Shakes of a Lamb's Tail is the funny, illuminating diary of a year in the life of a New Zealand farm vet. With a husband and two children, 1200 sheep and 400 cattle, farm dogs and pet lambs, pigs bent on excavation and a goat bent on escape, country life is never dull. From calving cows to constipat ed dogs, weddings to weaning lambs, daffodils to ducklings to droughts, each season brings new challenges and delights. Sometimes it's exhausting but it's almost always a lot of fun - anyway, it's all part and parcel of the life of a Kiwi mother, farmer's wife and vet. ...Show more

In the Paddock and on the Run: The Language of Rural New Zealand by Dianne Bardsley

$25.00 NZD

Category: Agriculture

This is the first book to explore the rich heritage of language the rural sector has generated. For two hundred years people have come from all over the world to work in New Zealand's rural enterprises. From this linguistic melting pot, which includes the addition of indigenous Maori words, phrases and adaptations, the author has composed this book, including historical citations for all words listed. Richly illustrated and often hilarious, it will prove an indispensable resource and a good read for the general reader and researcher alike. ...Show more

A Short History of Farming in New Zealand by Gordon McLauchlan

$16.00 NZD

Category: Agriculture | Reading Level: new

Gordon McLauchlan continues his bestselling Short History series with an in-depth look into the history of the farming industry in New Zealand. From the early migrant farmers and regional produce trading, to the revolution of refrigeration - opening up global opportunities for our fast-growing export ma rkets in wool, produce and more, McLauchlan covers the development of our country's farming culture in this accessible and informative read. - Details the farming culture and methods of early Polynesian and Maori settlers. - European farmers adjusting to the temperate zone crops and wildlife of New Zealand. - The birth and development of regional trade industries in rural areas. - Refrigeration and exporting to the British and European markets. - The development of leading global trade exports in wool, dairy products, Kiwifruit and more. ...Show more

Kiwi Farmers' Guide To Life: Rural Tales from the Heartland by Tim Fulton

$20.00 NZD

Category: Agriculture | Reading Level: near fine

Stories of New Zealand farmers and their families, tracing the ancestral journeys that brought them to their particular piece of rural Kiwi paradise. Profiles some of the country’s most innovative farmers; their motivations, frustrations and legacies; the camaraderie amongst their local communities. Sto ries of sweat, vision and risk-taking. The farmer’s role as environmental steward. A compilation of relatable, instructional and inspirational stories of heartland New Zealand and an insight into that irresistible pull towards working the land and being one’s own boss in an unpredictable and often challenging environment. ...Show more