HIGH PEAK STATION
Venue for the official launch of the new Gen 3 Isuzu D-Max was High Peak Station (and Game Estate) located in a picture perfect valley at the head of the Selwyn River Valley just up the road from the Mt Hutt skifield.
High Peak Station is the Guild family property upon which High Peak Game Estate is located. High Peak was established in 1856. Comprising over 4000 hectares (ten thousand acres) High Peak is home to two primary ventures – pastoral farming and guided trophy hunting.
Since 1973, High Peak has been owned and run continuously by James and Anna Guild and their family. James has spent over forty years’ dedicated to hunting, conservation and farming, and is the immediate past chairman of the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust, the organisation responsible for the protection of over 180,000 hectares (450,000 acres) of private land for conservation.
Jame’s wife Anna has supported him in all areas of the business, raised three children and, with James, built an extensive four hectare (ten-acre) high country garden around the Homestead.
All three offspring are now back working with their parents on High Peak. The eldest of the three, Simon runs the Game Estate and hunting operation, middle ‘child’ Hamish is in charge of all pastoral farming activities, and the youngest, Amelia – a successful artist and actress in her own right – is married to beekeeper Tom Dunbar, responsible for a range of station-sourced honey.
Perfect spot
The Station could hardly have provided a better venue for the launch of a modern DC TD Utility vehicle. The drive – which took just over an hour - to and from Christchurch Airport gave the journos invited a chance to settle in (on the way there) behind the wheel and confirm opinions (on the way back) while the Station itself offered up every type of road, track and terrain a 4x4 utility vehicle like the D-Max could ever expect to encounter!
On the first of two days at the launch Richard Moore and Tony Chambers of drive experience specialists Downforce Auto Events and Training put together a course on what I would call the ‘home paddocks’ part of the Station so that we could experience first-hand the improvements to the new model.
This included a dedicated steep, grassy downhill to test the Hill Descent Control plus an area of riverbank where we could try out the superior articulation of the rear axle, and the new electronic rear diff locker.
The next day was the biggie though as Tony Chambers and Simon Guild led us on a magical, mystery tour of both the pastoral and hunting blocks of the sprawling property, complete with fully catered hot lunch at The Hut, a prosaic hunting ‘lodge’ tucked into a sheltered little spot amongst native (black) beech trees at the (far) south-western corner of the property.
To get there and back we were in 4WD Low and alternating between second and third gears all the way from the river flat, negotiating the steep, ‘ Three or Four Day Track’ originally put in by bulldozer.