Historic Hurunui

The Hurunui district has a rich history of tough horses, hardy characters, and rugged land. This is the country we ride through on our treks, and we've put together some background information for you.

The Clarence Reserve | Molesworth Station | Station horses


The Peaks

Corriedale Country

In the 1860s James Little came out from England in charge of a consignment of Romney Marsh sheep. Some of the sheep went to Corriedale Station in North Otago and James Little went with them.

The Romneys performed poorly and it was decided to cross them with Merinos and then intercross the half-breds to develop a new breed; the Inbred-halfbred -- the Corriedale.

James Little remained at Corriedale until around the turn of the century, when Corriedale station and the stock was sold. James Little moved north to the Waikari District and began his breeding programme again, this time using a Lincoln-Merino cross. The cross was highly successful and became the accepted basis for the breed.

Corriedales are now the second most prolific breed in the world behind Merinos.
Hurunui Horse trek's base is in an area called The Peaks in the Hurunui District of North Canterbury. Our property is close to the Hurunui River at the edge of the Canterbury Plains, below the foothills of the mighty Southern Alps.

Details of the earliest pastoral history of the district are sketchy, but it is known that around 1860 most of the countryside surrounding Hawarden had been consolidated into one vast holding called Horsley Downs.

At its height the station covered 122,000 acres and shore 75,000 sheep. It lay west of the present Waikari-Hurunui road, extending from the south branch of the Waipara River, right up to the Hurunui River and west to the Seaward River. A measure of the scale of this enterprise is the fact that only our six and eight day treks leave the former boundaries of the station.

The was established in the mid 1880s, when one of the partners of Horsley Downs, under pressure from land-hungry new immigrants, released 900 acres of land to the Government. The land was leased in 50 acre sections and a small community was established.

Large unsuccessful investments in horse racing and a lavish lifestyle drained the wealth of the Horsley Downs owners and the station was carved up and sold in 1897.

In contrast, the small properties at the flourished and at one stage included a school with 32 pupils and a post office. We lease the horse paddock at the old school to graze some of our horses.

The Clarence Reserve:


The old cob homestead at Quail Flat
The earliest pastoral sheep runs in the Clarence Valley were taken up in 1857. Prior to that Maori people living at the mouth of the Clarence River had travelled through the valley but never lived there.

From the start, runs in the valley were very difficult to manage. The biggest single problem was access. Sheep had to be taken right out to the Kaikoura Peninsula -- across the Seaward Kaikoura Range -- for shearing. It seems incredible that anyone would go to so much trouble. Bad weather while moving the sheep would make the shearing operation unprofitable.

In the mid 1860s, the folly of this situation was recognised by the Government which allocated a reserve access strip, which allowed a shared woolshed to be built near the site of the present homestead. Surrounded by some good country the viability of the Clarence Valley stations improved.

But not enough. By 1890 the land was so infested with scab that no one could be found who was willing to take up the land. Since then it has been managed by the Crown.

At the turn of century, the Clarence Valley stations were running 20,000 sheep, but a new threat to the land was emerging; rabbits. In the early 1900s a rabbit fence was constructed along the entire length of the property in a bid to protect the valuable lower country.

The Clarence Valley was a favourite spot for rabbiters for over 60 years. Skins of all the colours of the rainbow could be obtained there and top money was paid for the beautiful silvery-grey winter bucks. For years the Reserve kept eight men full time on that job. In some years the rabbit skins must have come close to the wool clip in value.

The Clarence has always been regarded as rugged and high country sometimes requiring a climb to 8,000 feet. The musterers who worked there took pride in their work and really were a class apart.

In the 1950s a musterer, Ernie Thomas took over the Reserve and against the odds started to make things happen. Taking over a de-stocked run at a time when sheep prices were high, he kept his head above water in the early years by shooting deer.

Rabbits were still a major problem, but 1080 carrots dropped from aircraft helped the situation -- albeit at enormous expense. With the land improving Ernie brought in cattle and things started to look up. Again though there was a problem. The pack track out of the Reserve was 20 miles long and involved a steep zig zag up to 4,400 feet. It was no place to take cattle.

Ernie Thomas decided to build a 20 mile road over the range. Blasted into the hillside, the job took seven months and used 130 cases of gelignite weighing 56 pounds each. In 1969 the road was finished and the station has never looked back.

The Mighty Molesworth Station:

Of all the high country stations in New Zealand, Molesworth is probably the most famous. Its sheer size, more than 180,000ha (approx. 500,000 acres), vast herd -- more than 10,000 head of cattle -- and the tales of tragedy, place it in a category of its own. Private leaseholders were unable to run the land profitably and it has been in Crown management for more than 50 years.

Much of the flat country is at an altitude of more than 3,000 feet with many and ridges more than 6,000 feet. Draining to the south, it gets more than its fair share of snow and there is very little good north facing land, essential for wintering stock. It is also good country for rabbits.

Maori people did not live in the Molesworth district but they traveled the Awatere/Acheron route between the east coast and the Southern Alps passes. The first white people into the area were searching for stock routes from Marlborough and Nelson to Canterbury.

In March 1852 Edward Lee and Edward Jollie set off from the Lower Awatere valley with packhorses, dogs and 1740 sheep. The two burnt their way through thick vegetation, establishing a route over Barefell and Jollies passes to Hanmer. Within eight years the district was stocked.

Nelson drovers found two other stock routes through the district. The shorter one followed the upper Wairau and the Clarence over Island pass. A flatter easy route followed the Acheron via Tarndale and Red Gate.

The land which now forms Molesworth Station is made up of the former leases of Molesworth, St Helens, Tarndale and Dillon. Since the runs were taken up, the holders have always faced an uphill battle against winter losses and invading rabbits. Labour shortages during World War I, the slump of the early 1920s and then the 1930s depression were too much for the managers who between 1938 and 1949 sold their stock and relinquished their leases to the Crown.

At their peak the stations held more than 90,000 head of sheep, but the dangers of the country are reflected in the 1940 tragedy at St Helens. More than 40,000 sheep were put out for the winter and over 20,000 perished. When the land was returned to the Crown it was in a very poor state and for years afterwards, management revolved around helping the land recover.

Rehabilitation by controlling rabbits, halting all burning, changing stock from sheep to cattle, altering the grazing management and oversowing the grasslands, successfully transformed the station. This represents one of New Zealand’s major soil conservation and farming achievements.