Farming, honey and eco-tourism

TENDERS CLOSE on November 27 for an historic sheep and beef farm with an eco-tourism business near Cape Palliser.

The 1379-hectare Kawakawa Station, at Ngawi, is on the southeast tip of the North Island overlooking Palliser Bay.

Meat and wool production predominates but the waterfront block also makes honey commercially and runs a tourism venture that includes a threeday cross-country hike, with fully catered accommodation in rustic huts, a selfcatered cottage and a separate glamping option in an upmarket Mongolian yurt tent.

“Kawakawa Station’s business model is reflective of the space in which many New Zealand farms are operating,” says Lindsay Watts, of Bayleys Masterton, who’s marketing the multi-faceted enterprise with Rob Deal.

“It utilises the traditional and established primary productive sector as a foundation, then adds on additional revenue streams based upon their assets – in this case, the eco-tourism, commercial accommodation, and apiary activities.

“It’s a financially sensible approach, as the diversity of revenue streams helps smooth over any operational troughs which may arise from the primary activity – which in Kawakawa Station’s case is sheep and beef production.”

One of the Wairarapa’s oldest sheep farms, Kawakawa Station dates to 1847 and today winters about 5115 stock units.

The waterfront station also leases 785ha of adjoining hillside to graze its Romney flock.

Breeding records show a lambing rate of 115 percent, with cattle calving at 90 percent. Sheep are shorn every six months and the farm is fertilised biannually.

It has post, wire and batten fencing, and a well-maintained network of tracks and access lanes that also are used as part of the tramping network.

Kawakawa Station’s three-day walk has been operating since 2008 on formed tracks running between the rugged surf of Palliser Road through to the natural bush of Haurangi Forest Park.

Trampers on the route can book stays in any of three converted shepherds and farmhands’ huts, which have been reconfigured into bunk-room style accommodation with kitchens, toilets and bathrooms.

Glamping guests looking for something more luxurious sleep in a canvas Mongolian yurt tent with a queensize bed under luxurious sheets and hotelquality natural wool duvet, a solarpowered refrigerator, and an outdoor wrought-iron lion’s paw bath. The yurt has a nightly rack rate of $250, with a box of self-catering breakfast ingredients left in the ‘fridge for $45.

Honey production from the farm generated $67,000 in revenue in 2016. Deal says last year’s honey yields were lower, as they were nationally for all apiarists, but the forecast for the 2018 year is a return similar to 2016.

Data from the Ministry for Primary Industry’s apiculture monitoring programme shows the light clover honey rate last season ranged from $10-$14 a kilogram, while first-class manuka-grade honey commanded a kg premium of $10.80-$127.

Farm buildings include a four-stand woolshed and covered yards with a 1000-animal capacity, 1000-bale hay shed, a concrete-floored equipment and machinery storage shed, and farmhands’ hut for up to four workers.

There’s also a three-bedroom homestead with views over Cook Strait and a four-bedroom manager’s residence.

For more information, contact Lindsay Watts on 27 246 2542 (lindsay.watts @bayleys.co.nz) or Rob Deal on 027 241 4775 (robert.deal@bayleys.co.nz).