Heights Experience: Family farm in Horowhenua offers agritourism attraction

By Gianina Schwanecke of RNZ

Family heirlooms and old farm bits and bobs have found new life in the refurbished woolshed on Anna and Blair Robinson’s Horowhenua farm, Te Rohenga.

“The advantage of being on a family farm, multi-generational, is there’s always goodies in the storeroom,” she told RNZ’s Country Life.

The couple are the latest guardians of the property, alongside Anna’s brother Will, with the farm having been in Anna’s family since 1907.

The woolshed was the original building on the 900ha property when it was first purchased by Anna’s family.

It was one of the few in the district, which meant many neighbouring farms would also bring their sheep to be shorn there.

These days, it attracts a very different sort of visitor.

The woolshed was repurposed in the 1980s for a horse trekking business run by Anna’s aunt.

More recently, in 2019, it became the base for their agritourism business “Heights Experience”.

“We knew that we had a beautiful location,” Anna said.

A mural on the woolshed wall highlights the farm’s setting beneath the picturesque Tararua Range, where they breed and finish sheep and beef.

They also have a herd of about 70 velveting stags.

Blair’s 20 years-plus of stock agent experience come in handy, and they also lease his dad’s farm in Marton for finishing stock.

It’s been “pretty lean times” for farming recently, though they remain positive about the industry’s future.

The couple wanted to diversify the farm operation and offer Anna some flexibility between helping run the farm, managing the admin and working around their two children’s schooling and sporting commitments.

The original woolshed, when the property was purchased by Anna's family in 1907, has seen many uses since then and these days acts as a function space. Photo / RNZ, Gianina Schwanecke

They looked at setting up a farm walk or glamping option, but wanted to do something “really different”.

With Blair a keen duck shooter, it made sense to introduce claybird shooting, which was followed by archery and axe throwing.

A mural of the Tararua Ranges which the farm sits under. Photo / RNZ, Gianina Schwanecke

The busy couple admit Heights Experience does tie up a few weekends.

To ensure they still get some quality family time, they limit it to Fridays and Saturdays, with the odd mid-week corporate event.

It's a juggle for the busy couple and their family. Photo / RNZ, Gianina Schwanecke

They close over the winter months, too.

“To have a business off the side of this, it pays for the extras that we can do with our family.

“It also does give you the interaction with the public,” Blair told Country Life, adding it made him proud of what they’re doing on-farm.

The Heights Experience includes a range of outdoor activities, including clay bird shooting, archery, axe throwing, a golf challenge, as well as lawn games. Photo / RNZ, Gianina Schwanecke

Anna agreed it was “really special”.

“With people coming for Heights Experience, you get to see the farm through their eyes and it sort of makes you appreciate and realise, one, how lucky we are - there’s not many generational family farms left - but also the environment we live in is beautiful.

“We’re very conscious we’re the guardians of this land for the next generation.”

Blair, too, is conscious of the connection between different generations, adding they wouldn’t be on-farm if not for the opportunities presented by both their parents, though he joked, “sometimes you wonder if it’s an opportunity or a hindrance”.

- RNZ