06 November 2022

From drawing a ballot farm of 800 hectares, to retirement on 8 hectares – food, farm, family, friendships and firewood

WRITER: FELICITY CONNELL

PHOTOGRAPHER: CLAIRE MOSSONG

After more than three decades of working on and developing Tahora Station – a remote, 800 hectare high-country sheep and beef farm seventy-odd kilometres inland from Gisborne – Nancie Barclay, 75, and her husband William, 76, found moving to a smaller lifestyle block allowed them to focus on what they enjoy doing while still maintaining their connections with the rural life.

In 1983, Nancie and her husband William drew a ballot farm in Tahora. There were fourteen paddocks, plenty of rain and often snow. With three children, no garden, no firewood, a cold house, only two trips to town a month and a very limited budget, this was the place that they would come to call their ‘paradise’. They bought a calf and a house cow they called Trudi with the family benefit. Hens, a two-wheeler motorbike and a horse called Alice came next. Tahora was farmed as a family, and they survived the rigors of that decade there.

Thirty-three years later, in 2016, Nancie and William moved to TeWai, a hillside property overlooking a valley in Ngātapa, about twenty minutes out of Gisborne. With eight hectares to manage, it’s not so much retirement, as downsizing. “We don’t miss the constant twenty-four-seven, three hundred and sixty-five days of sheep and beef farming,” Nancie explains. “We’re still busy. We are finding there are not enough hours in the day to do everything we have planned. The biggest difference is that we don’t have to get up early and work long hours like we did before. We can travel to family and friends without the restriction of the farming calendar.”

Tahora is now owned and run by one of their sons, Nicholas, 40, and his wife Rebecca, with their children Oliver, 7, and Annabel, 4, being the next generation to grow up on the station. William still heads up to the farm to help out a couple of days a week, and both he and Nancie assist during the busy times, such as docking. They also return to do a stint of ‘farm-sitting’ to give Nicholas and Rebecca a break. “We help where we can without interfering with the management and strategy. We try not to give too much advice,” Nancie laughs.

With the aim of keeping the farm in the family, planning for succession began in 2015. When it comes to farm succession, every family’s situation is slightly different, says Nancie. She advises to start planning early. It can be emotional and challenging, but is ultimately rewarding. Their transition was years in the planning, with regular farm and family meetings. “All of our boys contributed to the development and success of the farm. They all worked hard on Tahora growing up, and without them it just wouldn’t have been sustainable. They all had a good education, first at Dilworth in Auckland and then Lincoln University, to give them strong options for their futures.” Bruce is based in Cambridge, where he is a general manager in the timber industry, and Andrew lives in Christchurch, where he is a commercial property fund manager.

Succession has been a work in progress. Nancie recommends discussing your plans with other people, but sticking to your own vision. ‘It’s about confidently investing our funds in the farm business for our futures, and being fair to all the family. There are six siblings in my family, and we’ve all done something different in terms of retiring from full-time farming. The one thing in common is that we all kept up our interests that we had outside of farming”.

For Nancie, that includes preserves, photography and pest control. “I was brought up being a hunter and gatherer. My grandparents nurtured fruit trees, fowls and a garden. My parents also had a large vegetable garden and many fruit trees, and we preserved our harvest for the rest of the year. As my older brother said to me recently, that early learning from our grandparents and parents to be self-sufficient and live off the land was passed down to us, and has given us all a lot of pleasure. We all learned from them and hopefully our families can learn from us.”

Nancie has included a nod to her heritage in her new garden at TeWai. “I originally came from Eltham, so I’ve planted a Hawera plum to recognise that connection. My maiden name was Pease, so I’ve planted a Peasgood Nonsuch apple.” Feijoa, walnut, avocado, cherry, apricot, peach, orange, lemon, grapefruit and mandarin are some of the fruiting trees they’ve planted. Conifers, blue cedar and Matapouri Blue tōtara have also been planted to help stabilise the hillside. Establishing a new garden has been more of a challenge than Nancie anticipated. “But it’s a challenge I’m enjoying. If I’m out in the garden, I’m closer to God than anywhere else on earth.”

Nancie’s getting used to the change from the snow country at Tahora – 880 metres above sea level – to the semi-tropical climate of Ngātapa, a mere sixty-one metres above sea level. Sheep dags and manure from Tahora are helping to nourish the soil, and through the alchemy of gardening are turned into vegetables she shares with others. “I’m able to grow a range of vegetables at a different time of the year than what I could previously. We grow tomatoes and avocados outside! I send vegetables back up to Nicholas – cabbages, broccoli and cauliflowers that have grown over our winter, which is quite incredible.” Carrying on the family tradition of preserving, Nancie always has a jar of something special to share – jewel-like apricots, different types of marmalade, basil pesto with walnuts, orange peel or pickled spring onions – all made from produce she has grown. She entered thirty different preserves, chutneys, relishes and jams in this year’s local A&P Show.

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is important to Nancie and William. “We used to go farming together, and now we regularly go walking together up at the forestry road behind us.” Nancie also keeps up her fitness with aqua aerobics sessions a couple of times a week. “It’s a social time for me, as many of the other women also lived on remote stations.” Photography is another interest. “I take photos of every event we’re involved in, of our travels and of the family. I’m a regular competitor in the photography section at the A&P and I love getting special images put onto canvas.”

Pest control is something Nancie has taken into her own hands. Deer, feral cats, pigs and goats are a huge problem, and possums, too. “When we came down here to TeWai, we were staggered at the number of possums just in our immediate garden area. We shoot them and catch them in cages, with the grandchildren sometimes helping to pluck the fur, which is then sold. We love birds, and we’ve got a huge variety of native birds that visit us, like kotare, tūī and weka – in fact I’m looking at three fat kererū now!”

As part of her ‘waste not, want not’ ethos, Nancie has found practical use for found timber, too. “I’ve always had an affinity for wood; I just love the feel of it. For years I’d travel into EIT [the Eastern Institute of Technology] to woodworking classes. I used jarrah recycled from cattle gates and tōtara and rimu too, making everything from kitchen stirrers and salad servers to stools and bookcases. Once I’ve got the garden established, I’m hoping to do a bit more, as I still have a stock of old timbers and I don’t want to waste it.”

Staying in the region has meant that Nancie and William have remained connected with their community. “Moving to Tahora back in the eighties involved moving away from our own families, so our children didn’t have their extended family around. Other people’s grandparents ‘adopted’ our children, and cheered for them at sports events. Now when we go to local school and sports events to support our grandchildren, we’re surrounded by the families of people who supported us. The young people I taught to ride at pony club are parents themselves now!”

Nancie believes by moving to TeWai they have managed to keep all the things that they love about rural living without the day-to-day obligations of running a farm. And she still considers herself a farmer. “I’ve always classed myself as a farmer. I’ve never been a ‘housewife’ – I disagree with that term entirely. And while we’re not running the farm now, our generation has valuable experience and knowledge to pass on to others; I think we’ve got something to contribute. William goes to farm field days, and still gets asked for his advice. We’re part of Federated Farmers and the New Zealand Farm Forestry Association, and we’re active in writing submissions and advocating for farmers. The criticism of the farming sector can be tough on those who are trying to farm sustainably and profitably. It can be very demoralising. So we try to support the current generation of farmers who work so hard. After all, we’re all producing food for the world.”

“In retirement we think more about the future,” Nancie says. “Food, farm, family, enhancing friendships and firewood are the other five Fs in our retirement days! Preservation of the things we have nurtured during our employment years, our family and our accomplishments (good and not so good) during our working lives tend to sit bolt upright before our eyes.”

After the planning they have done to get to this stage, Nancie is not looking too far into the future. “We probably should have ideas of where the next move may be, but I hope we can stay here as we are so comfortable and happy here. We are just excited to see what we’ve established here growing well. It gives us huge satisfaction to continue to help at Tahora, and that our family shares our interests – planting and maintaining trees for food and for the future. Thirty-five years has felt like such a short time to be custodians of Tahora. Now we are trying to do the same at TeWai, but in a shorter timeframe!”