Secluded farm sale offers life from a bygone era

Media Release
Date 15.5.2009

Secluded farm sale offers life from a bygone New Zealand era

Driving along Old Motu Road, east of Opotiki, as he heads to get some photographs of a property he is marketing, Bayleys Tauranga salesperson Rhys Mischefski could be forgiven for thinking that he was travelling in a time warp.

Ahead is a horseman with a bushy beard - three dogs running alongside him - doing what he’s done for most of his life, just going about his business in this remote part of New Zealand where time appears to have stood still.

Native bush flanks the road with the odd farm here and there as Mischefski approaches the Toatoa area near the junction of Motu and Takaputahi Roads.

It’s taken him an hour from Opotiki and if he’d come this way back in the 1930’s, he would have stumbled across a thriving cheese factory, a school, a sawmill and enough good keen blokes to form a rugby team. But, fortunes change and virtually nothing remains of the settlement today.

Back then, hardy men slogged away breaking in the unforgiving country to form their farms – their livelihood - while also lending a communal hand to form roads following the routes of military tracks, a hangover from land wars in the mid 1800s.

They in turn were following in the footsteps of pioneer farmers from the mid-1890s who made valiant attempts to establish farms – for some, the challenges were eventually insurmountable and they walked away. The native scrub has returned to these sites and no evidence remains of their endeavours.

Others, however, captivated by the isolated area and having the fortitude to do the hard yards, stuck it out through thick and thin and created productive, sound farms – many of which remain today.
Farms like Te Weka, where Mischefski arrives with his camera.

“It is just so quiet here,” he says, as a family of weka arrive on the front lawn almost on cue, testament to DOC’s efforts in the wider Motu area to preserve what is the last remaining refuge for the weka in the North Island.

“This is a productive and economic farm with a good reputation and a long history of growing young stock. The property is 335 hectares in total with 120 hectares of that in excellent pasture and the balance in mature native bush. Te Weka currently carries 250 rising two-year and 200 rising one-year heifers,” explains Mischefski, adding that the out-of-town current owner has the property as a dairy support block with a resident manager handling the day-to-day farming work.

“The manager would love to stay on, so there is potential here for someone to pick up some fairly cheap land and a hassle-free operation.”

Recently fenced into 20 paddocks, the land is of mixed contour and water supply is plentiful with natural springs and several streams running through the property. The remodelled and updated character home on the property provides comfortable accommodation and the huge north-facing deck offers up superb views across the valley. Support buildings include good stock yards and a large implement shed with a workshop.

“I know that this location is not everybody’s cup of tea – but there is something so unique about it,” says Mischefski. “It’s like going back 50 years and the people around here are among the nicest and most generous I have ever come across. They haven’t been caught up in the trappings of the modern world and it’s really refreshing.”

As a consequence, Te Weka Farm may also appeal to someone wishing to get away from it all. Perhaps an artist or a writer wanting solitude and the opportunity to experience New Zealand as it was before the world caught up on us...

Te Weka farm will be auctioned at Bayleys Tauranga on Wednesday 10 June.

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