The recent droughts, the 2016 earthquake and now the Covid-19 lockdown are yet more chapters in the farm's colourful history, farmer Rebekah Kelly said.
Her family has been farming at Woodchester Station, off Leader Rd, nestled between Waiau and Parnassus in North Canterbury, since her great-grandfather, Linton Gardiner, bought the farm more than 100 years ago.
‘‘On the property there's a bit of heritage. They went through snows, droughts and financial crises and survived and we can do it too.
“Each generation uses the knowledge of the previous generations and what's new, so they can pass the farm on to the next generation in as good a condition as we can. And we produce some food and fibre while we're at it.”
Mrs Kelly and her husband, David, run the 2000ha property, running 3500 breeding ewes, with half-breed Merino-Romney sheep running on the steeper country and Romney-Texel ewes on the rolling hills. They also run 500 Angus-Hereford cows.
Around 250 bee hives are on the farm to produce manuka honey, in partnership with a local bee keeper.
There are two QE2 covenants on the farm, including a 37ha triangle of beech forest and a 2ha block of manuka, bordering a neighbour's QE2 covenant.
The couple has four children, James (15), Lucas (13), Isaac (10) and Victoria (8).
As with previous generations, the children are home-schooled until they are old enough to go to boarding school, due to the farm's isolation.
“It's a great lifestyle, whether it's doing stock work, out on the tractor, mustering with ponies or going for a hunt, there's lots to do.”
And then there's the lake that formed after the 2016 earthquake, when a landslip dammed the river, creating a lake wide and long enough for a water-ski lane.
“It warms up enough in the summer to go for a dip and it's flat enough on the lake's edge to pitch a tent.”
Mrs Kelly said the earthquake created “a whole bunch of chaos and work”, but they were coming out the other end, having dealt with lots of land movement, fencing damage and destroyed water tanks.
The so-called “great wall of Waiau”, which caught the attention of University of Canterbury geologists, runs through Woodchester from Leader Rd to the new lake.
It took several months until new tanks and piping were installed, pumping water from a new source.
Mrs Kelly said 90% of farm fences were damaged, but the farm was gradually being re-fenced and they hoped to complete the work next autumn.
The Covid-19 lockdown has meant quake repairs to the house of her uncle, Linton Gardiner, who lives on the farm, have been put on hold.
Next autumn they hope to begin work to repair the wool shed and then their own house.
