Take the High Road

An energetic young couple shares their high-country family farm by building a scenic walking track for tourists.

Words: Sue Moody  Photographs: Guy Frederick

NOT LONG AGO Mandy Sutherland thought her career as a dive instructor would take her to live among the bending palms of an exotic tropical island. Around the same time Dan Shand, fourth-generation man of the land, was studying graphic design and marketing in Dunedin and pondering career options. Then Dan met Mandy and a romance developed along with a dream. The couple set out on a new path – together.

Dan Shand grew up on the north Canterbury high-country station Island Hills, where he and Mandy now live. At boarding school in Christchurch he had created a sixth-form design project showing some of his family acreage being transformed into a tourism venture. Dan’s a determined young man, but even he probably didn’t believe that within 10 years he would be using his considerable energy and talents to do just that. Dan’s parents had diversified income streams to include wool, cattle and deer farming. With an eye to the future, they called Dan and Mandy who were in Queensland, working and saving like mad. The call brought them home. “For me, the walking track was an opportunity to do something other than traditional farming,” explains Dan. “Mandy and I were keen to come and do it.”

Hurunui High Country Track has now completed its third season. Billed as “a three-night unguided walking track with hot showers, pack transport and something a little different every step of the way”, it is Mandy and Dan’s brainchild. The couple married on Valentine’s Day in 2003. “Three days later we opened to our first group of walkers,” says Mandy. It had taken two and a half years to build the track. With Dan wielding a chainsaw and Mandy weighing in with pick and shovel, they put in untold hours and huge amounts of elbow grease. “Hard yakka but fun,” they agree. “We thought it was never going to end. It was only do-able because we were in it together,” says Mandy.

In 1928 great-grandfather Shand acquired 17,500 acres including Island Hills Station and moved into the historic head-shepherd quarters. Wool was his currency, through the tough times of the Depression and a world war that claimed one of his sons. “In 1999 my granddad died at the age of  94. It took a year to sort out all his stuff. At the time we were putting together a museum in the old schoolhouse. Most of the exhibits came straight out of his house!”

Dan Shand and Mandy Sutherland at home at their
high-country farm.

Island Hills Station sits at the end of a gravel road 90 minutes north of Christchurch on the way to Hanmer Springs. The tall hills look purple under a broody south-westerly-blowing sky and the valleys fold into themselves above tree-studded flats. “Thirty million years ago this was a coastal walk,” explains Dan. “The plug rocks which were blown out by underwater volcanoes are now beside the road.” Walkers climb to the summit at 750 metres through a forest of introduced Douglas fir. Bush, including stands of four types of native beech, honey-producing manuka and sub-alpine vegetation are the natural attractions.

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