One of the highlights of writing for a rural paper is driving no exit gravel roads, just to see how far they go. In this instance the instructions were to turn off at Tapawera, right at Tadmor and then through Matariki, where the tarseal ends, ford the river by the swing bridge, through the gate, and finally three kilometers on the left. Excellent.
Cor and Belia de Vos have exchanged a four hectare farmlet near Gouda in the Netherlands for a 609 hectare property bordering Kahurangi National Park at the start of the Wangapeka track. For Belia, the property was love at first sight, despite the fact it was raining the first day they saw it, and the hills were shrouded in mist. "It was the native bush that attracted us," she explained. "We were not intending to be real commercial farmers, we wanted a combination. We had the idea of hobby farming, but we are the kind of people that try to do things perfectly, and in a way we got carried away."
The Vos's purchased the farm in October 1998 after visiting both the North and South islands of New Zealand on two previous occasions, citing the impressive nature, kind people and the amount of space. Originally from Gouda, Cor highlighted, "in a radius of 40 kilometres there are almost the same numbers of people in the whole of New Zealand, so it's totally different."
Though new to farming, animals have always been a part of their lives having both been practicing veterinarians. They operated two vet practices in two different Dutch cities, mainly with smaller animals, and were on call 24 hours a day for over twenty years. "There was just no challenge anymore, other than just making more money. The jobs were just repeats of the same things and we really needed a new challenge - a new target," Belia said. "It's still working with animals. In Holland the patient was waiting for us in the shed and we just had to treat them, here you have to catch them first, and haul them kilometres down from the run to the cattle yards, and that's our challenge now," she said laughing freely.
Operating as Wangapeka Valley Stud, the farm began experimenting with three breeds of sheep, the Romney, Perendale and Suffolk, and three breeds of cattle, the Hereford, Angus and South Devon. They sold the Herefords because they were getting too fat and simply weren't looking good enough, and the Romneys didn't perform as well as they had hoped either.
"Now we have our Suffolks on the flat paddocks and the hardy low maintenance Perendale on the hills and for developing land. Angus for the more remote paddocks and the otherside of the Wangapeka river and South Down for the flats, and we are building up the numbers by breeding them ourselves," Cor explained.
While driving between Kaikoura and Blenhiem (to purchase some good quality Suffolk ewes from North Canterbury) they glimpsed their first South Devon cattle grazing near the roadside. A helpful Blenheim butcher confirmed their suspicions of breed type and mentioned a local breeder, John Holt whom they later called upon unannounced, Belia explained. "He was so enthusiastic we spent an entire afternoon discussing the breed. Although he had none for sale, weeks later he had some problem cows going to the works, but we said we can deal with the cow and calf. So our first delivery was a caesarian section in the cattle yards in the pouring rain, and the calf was almost 80kg and very difficult to lift."
The Vos's are focusing on quality rather than quantity with their livestock and the South Devons, traditionally known for their Devon and Cornish clotted cream, are a small part of their operation, with Cor adding, "we intend breeding really good Perendale and Suffolk stud sheep. Every year we are buying top rams at the national sales. We are now improving the Angus using artificial insemination with semen from the best bulls of the United States to lift the quality. Our dream is to breed the best bull in New Zealand."
Describing the continuous battle with nature, the weeds, gorse, sandflies, rabbits, hares and pigs, there was also apprehension regarding isolation and loneliness, that has proved completely unfounded. "Everyone expected us to be very lonely over here - but we had 30 visitors from the Netherlands in the first year!"
Both Cor and Belia emphasised the strong community support they have experienced since moving to the area, describing it as almost like having relatives next door. The day they actually moved onto the farm in 1998, it was raining heavily and the swollen Dart river had made the ford impassable. "Our neighbour, a sheep and beef farmer from Matariki, saw us pass by and jumped into his car, afraid we would attempt a crossing. We ended up staying for dinner, and then breakfast, and then for a couple of days. They are still some of our best friends and that feels really good."
Feel like a break in the Wangapeka Valley? Try renting this self catering farm cottage just down the road.
