Nick and Wendy Lansdown, their children and Wendy's parents, Ian and Pam Barnett, travelled toLawrence to be recognised as a Century Farming family. Wendy's great grandfather Henry Stuckey brought land at Awariki in 1912 with his wife Mabel.
This land has since passed down through the family, twice through the female side, to be a part of the current Pikowai Farm.
Henry and Mabel spent their early years stumping and developing the land to run their Southdown and Hereford Studs. Henry was the inaugural president of the NZ Southdown Society and president of the NZ Hereford Society. He started a family tradition of involvement with the Dannevirke A&P Association which future generationscontinued.
Henry, an avid diarist and noted daily weather, stock conditions, sale and commodity prices. Barbara Stuckey married Ian Arnold Barnett (known as John), a young man who worked for the Stuckeys.
They moved to Tahuna, north of Hamilton, to milk cows but returned to Awariki in 1940 when Henry Stuckey died from hydatids, always having a stalk of grass in the corner of his mouth.
John and Barbara quickly settled into life in the Dannevirke area and raised four children. John took over the Hereford stud and followed in his father-in-law's footsteps by becoming President of the Hereford Association of NZ and President of the Dannevirke A&P Association.
A love of machinery was also becoming a family tradition. Henry had enjoyed riding a motorbike to travel to Dannevirke and had purchased a petrol engine caterpillar.
This was replaced by John Barnett with a D2 caterpillar, then a later model with a hydraulic blade, which is still in use today. John also purchased a stationary haypress in the early 1940s - a first for the district.
He instilled a love of haymaking in his son Ian Barnett, who went on to "do the hay" for the Awariki/Mangahei district for many years.
Ian Barnett (born Henry John) was the eldest son of Barbara and John Barnett and attended Dannevirke South School, living with his grandmother Mabel Stuckey as Awariki School was closed from 1935-1945 due to a falling roll. In 1955, Ian took the first live shipment of polled Herefords to England, then after exploring England returned home to the farm at Awariki.
Ian married a young dental nurse from Waipukurau, Pamela Sullivan and started a family. Ian continued the family involvement with the Dannevirke A&P Association and is the current patron. He expanded the machinery owned by the family by purchasing a header harvester, a microlight plane and other new pieces of farming technology.
As time passed Ian and Pam decided to retire to a new home and asked the children if anyone was interested in taking over the farm. Ian and Pam's daughter Wendy had married Nick Lansdown and the couple was milking cows on Nick's family farm at Takapau.
Shona and Michael, Wendy's siblings, declined the chance to go farming so Wendy and Nick purchased Pikowai in 1995.
Nick had been a visitor for several years. He and Ian shared a love of haymaking.
Nick had been known to spy haymaking happening at Pikowai as he worked on Ben Nevis Station, and could tell when the hay was ready to be picked up.
He would arrive after his day's work had finished in time to pick up the hay and cemented his place as a future custodian of the family's machinery.
Today Pikowai farms Romneys, Friesian bulls and deer.
All four generations of the family served as leaders of the Awariki School.
Over the generations the farm has been developed and expanded.
The Barnett/Lansdown family has had their share of floods, washing out fences and bridges, accidents to people and difficult years with poor produce prices combined with droughts.
