On the right track

High country station Glen Orkney is a working farm which runs about 3000 merinos and up to 120 angus cattle. But with 1200 hectares at the northern tip of the Inland Kaikoura Range, and with Mt Malvern rising to 1426m, it is also a spectacular setting for tramping. DAVE WILLIAMS reports.  

While many farmers put their foot down at people tramping across their property, a Marlborough couple want visitors to do just that.

"We want people to think of it as an experience of going through a working farm," says Simon Harvey who, along with wife Lynda, opened the Tussock Track through their farm earlier this summer.

The Harveys have been working on the track for about 18 months getting it ready for paying customers.

Many will be jealous of their workplace, at the end of the Awatere's Medway Valley.

The landscape is classic high country with lofty jagged peaks overlooking undulating hills and rolling, golden tussock farmland.

The land has a rich farming history. Sheep were first introduced to the area in 1850, and Glen Orkney was formed in 1908 when JW Cummings bought nearly 2000 hectares of the Welds Hill run. His sons Sinclair and Davy split the property up in 1938, with Sinclair taking over the newly formed Stronsay, and Davy keeping the remainder of Glen Orkney.

With their Orkney Island heritage, they were both hard working. Davy was a sniper in World War 1, and after the war he and his brother waged war on rabbits even ring fencing most of the property with a rabbit fence dug six inches into the ground.

Glen Orkney is also a glimpse of the history of Marlborough. There are odd scattered remnants of totara logs at higher altitudes, indicating the land was originally covered in bush, but was cleared by Maori, probably lighting fires to flush out the moa they were hunting.

Simon's parents bought Glen Orkney in 1966, and Simon and Lynda have been farming the station since 1984. In 2005 the couple won the pastoral section of the Marlborough Rural Environment Awards.

There are four QE2 covenanted areas on the farm, and Simon says they were excited having people come on the farm to do Significant Natural Areas surveys.

"I already had two areas fenced off, and I fenced off a couple more and covenanted all of them. Having a walk like this helps justify it. From a commercial point of view, I would have done it anyway.

"We would really like to think that livestock farming could remain a sustainable use of this land, but we are focusing on the better areas of the property and trying to farm that well, and then protect the fragile areas that have indigenous vegetation.

"You get very black and white views. Some people want it locked up. I don't think either camp is correct. We have to protect the special areas but recognise areas that are capable of supporting commercial ventures."

Simon says he has dropped stock numbers about 20 percent, but the per head production has probably gone up in that time.

Having the track is also another source of income. They didn't have the option of planting grapes or irrigating to increase productivity, and both were very enthusiastic about the walking idea.

Simon says they got the idea from going on other walks, enjoying them, and seeing how others enjoyed them.

He says he was a little bit doubtful about the first track he walked, but did it to see a bit of different country and get a bit of exercise.

But while they enjoyed walking on other people's properties, the Harveys felt their own farm, where a private track was feasible, offered some potential.

"We have always had a vision of having a hut where people can come and get away, but we couldn't work out how to make it successful and, having done a couple of walks, we slowly started to think maybe that is the way of doing it."

Simon guesses there might be about 15 to 20 similar private walks in the country now. And they have had a lot of support from the nearby Cape Campbell Walkway owners.

"Part of the experience is not just the walk, it's being away from pressure and cellphones, you can just sit back and relax."

The three-day walk is a chance to walk through a working farm, and to see a part of the South Island high country not many people have seen before.

Simon says it's a step up from tramping in a National Park. For $20 your pack will be carried to the hut and back, and there is a good stock of food and beverages you can buy in the hut.

"This is good exercise but it's comfortable at the end of the day."

"I enjoy walking, but not with a pack on my back. That's why most offer the option."

Simon is a master of understatement when describing Cregan Hut as a hut. It is more like a well-appointed bach. It has a solar electricity system, gas cooking and heating, and one of the most powerful showers known to man.

It's all great value, and Simon says the cost of $60 per night would be less than driving for a day and putting yourself up in a motel for the night.

But there aren't many motels that offer the vistas of Cregan Hut, or more than from Twin Peaks, beneath Mt Malvern.

At the height of the track, on the point called Twin Peaks there is small lee under the rocks where you can get out of the wind and drink in the view. That can easily soak up an hour or two looking down the Medway and Awatere Valleys, and up to Mt Tapuae-o-nuku.

One of the more remarkable sights was the fence that runs up the back of the property. It snakes along the top of the ridges, and just keeps on snaking. Straight up the ridge and to the top of Mt Malvern, a rocky peak 1426m high.

Simon says the fencing material would have been taken up the mountain by pack horse from the other side, where access is easier, but it is still a remarkable feat.

While the pioneers at the station performed some unfathomable tasks, for the walker it isn't quite that testing.

The marker posts along the track are either steel waratahs or recycled vineyard posts and are easily followed.

While the first day isn't too much hard work, and the hut can be reached in about four hours, the start of the day two loop is nearly straight up.

Parts of the track are not for the faint hearted in many places the track is nothing more than a stock track, where sheep and cattle have gradually made their own way through.

And, what about the idea of people walking over the farm while Simon and Lynda are trying to work?

"We are happy to share it with people in an efficient and reasonably controlled way," Simon says.

"We have set up the track and people are paying for the pleasure of walking through our property. We see it as hopefully a win-win sort of situation, I guess."

They strongly discourage smoking, not for health reasons, but because of the very real risk of fire in the dry high country. The track is open from mid November to mid May after lambing, and avoiding the colder, riskier parts of the year. For information, visit the website www.tussocktrack.co.nz, or check out the nearby Cape Campbell Walkway, www.capecampbellwalkway.co.nz

 

- The Marlborough Express