Thomas Bywater walks the grounds of an historic high country sheep station that welcomes trampers on two legs or four.
The Island Hills Station occupies a special place in the Hurunui hinterland, north Canterbury.
Sat between the Lewis Pass tourist route and the way to Hanmer Springs, it’s an atoll of little visited country. Its 8000 hectares of historic sheep station and QEII covenant land floats in splendid isolation on the doorstep of one of Canterbury’s busiest regions for holidaymakers.
This goes some way to explaining why, when it reopened to trampers three years ago, it attracted such interest. But it is not nosiness alone that keeps the historic huts full from October through March. It’s a storied bit of country that has changed a lot since becoming a sheep station at the turn of the last century.
This interest keeps trail manager Shaun Monk extremely busy. Previously a pasture researcher at Lincoln University and part-time backcountry hunting guide, in 2019 Shaun went bush full time.
Eternally cheerful, eternally in shorts and weatherbeaten hat, he strikes a likeness of a Murray Ball caricature. Someone that might at any moment appear on the trail carrying a trussed-hog, and it would be perfectly normal.
Hitching a ride in Shaun’s Toyota landcruiser to the trailhead, we park up momentarily to radio in the evening’s weather forecast to the huts. “Strong northwesterly, easing. A high of 28 degrees,” he calls over the squawk box.
“Yep! Copy that, Base” echoes the chipper response, seconds later.
I ask if there were hut wardens on the other end of the radio, naively.
“Nah, we’re a pretty light operation,” he says. Without phone coverage, the 7pm radio check is the only communications line and something of a ritual for trampers. It’s up to guests to listen out for the call.
He isn’t lying about it being a small operation. Almost every metre of the 30km trail has been conserved by Shaun and his partner Hayley, by hand.
Following the old Hurunui High Country track, which was abandoned in 2014, they took over running the track after half a decade of disuse. It’s something of a passion project.
But who could not be passionate about a landscape like this?
Island Hills Track begins after an overnight at the Cookhouse. The original 1911 hut has a frontier charm, with a red tin roof overlooking the Dove River valley. It’s also the last chance to sleep in a proper bed and separate rooms before the trail.
Just be sure to close the doors or be prepared to do some sheep mustering. The trailhead is also home to a shaggy, blacknose Valais sheep and a couple of tame Romney ewes.
The overly friendly sheep are the first introduction to the animals of the working high country station. Apart from tourists, the farm is home to a few hundred head of sheep, beef cattle and millions of bees. In mid February the tops of trees are thick with insects collecting honey, one of the farm’s mainstays.
There is no shortage of multi-day tracks for trampers in Canterbury. However, the Island Hills is unusual in that it is entirely on private land, avoiding crown conservation areas.
This means it’s also one of the few overnight walks where dogs are welcome. Kennels are provided at the huts, with the option to have your dog’s bedding dropped off.
If you’re of the opinion ‘two legs good, four legs better’, there’s also a horse trek that connects the huts. At the end of the first day we were met by a couple who had hacked in on a pair of ex-racehorses. The animals were left to graze under the trees on the banks of the Mandamus river, as the walkers cooled off in the rocky rapids.
It’s a bucolic setting that you imagine is little changed since the Shands first took over the station in 1913.
The trail uses a couple of the original high country huts including a 1930s forestry cabin. Although the interior has been restored and brightened with skylights, a fridge and other modern comforts, from the outside it looks all the like a Davy-Crocket frontiersman’s log cabin.
In fact, the whole Shand Family history lies heavy over the hills.
At the beginning of the trail, the farm museum contains curios from four generations of Shands. One end is dedicated to old school trophies for Amuri Rugby XVs, cricket bats and a wall atlas from the 40s gives the shed the atmosphere of a child’s old room. Judging by the contents they left somewhere between the Great Depression and the Second Battle of El Alamein, and they’re not coming back. As well as paraffin lamps, musty tack ancient cans of Dettol - the Island Hills have collected plenty of stories.
On the coffee table of the Valley Camp station is a transcript of a diary belonging to the Great grandfather of the current farmer, it reads like New Zealand’s answer to War and Peace. The weighty tome of laminated sheets skips through two world wars, mutinies in South American freezer works and depression-era socials for penniless labourers in Hanmer. Despite its remoteness, the long unbroken memory of the sheep station seems to have deep roots, that interweave with the story of the South Island in surprising ways.
A Shand was even at the controls of the doomed aircraft that killed Sir Edmund Hillary’s wife in Nepal.
That’s not to say the track is trapped in the early 20th century.
Although the station is still in the family’s possession, it’s Shaun and Hayley that are helping deliver the latest chapter of the hills’ tourism offering.
His quirky sense of humour is written in the landscape. In some places quite literally. “Press here for helicopter pick up” reads a sign painted on the open jaws of a rabbit trap hung on a trail maker. Elsewhere, “Engage low gear. Steep climb” - another demotivational sign greets trampers on the way to Straggler’s Saddle.
The trail is pretty tough in places with varying surfaces and a lot of low alpine country to traverse on day two. It was recently added to the Great Hikes App, which might jar with the heritage of the trail but does tell you just how far you have to go to the next waypoint. With bag transfers between huts for chilly bins and luggage, you only need to take a day pack on the trail which is good motivation for keeping you going. That and the fact your supper is waiting for you, in a well stocked kitchen and perhaps a bottle of Lindauer in the fridge. All you have to do is get to it.
The Island hills is an impressive trail, even more impressive given the level of work taken to reopen it to the public. However Shaun’s latest project might be even more ambitious.
Despite being on his second knee replacement, he describes himself as an unreformed trail running addict. This April 29 he is organising the inaugural “Skedaddle Run for Nature”, the main event of which is a 42km fundraising race over some of the toughest terrain in North Canterbury. Currently, 200 runners are signed up, with proceeds going to trapping and conservation work on the station. The Ultra Marathon, which is also a qualifying race for the UTMB series, is one of the most exciting and challenging new additions for the New Zealand running calendar.
For me, I’m content with taking the track at my my own pace.
The Island Hills track can be walked in three or two days with bag transfers. islandhillsstation.com
Skedaddle: Run for Nature is taking place on April 29, with 42, 30, 15, and 3km distances. skedaddle.co.nz
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