'Pinetree' sells farm for $1.425m

Colin Meads and his wife Verna didn't think they'd get such a great price for the farm. Photo / Amos Chapple

Colin "Pinetree" Meads has sold his 252 acre farm near Te Kuiti for $1.425 million at auction.

The Meads farm sold to Les Holloway and an unidentified silent partner.

Mr Holloway, dressed in farm socks, Canterbury shorts and a woollen jumper, owns 2500 acres in Piopio and 1700 acres at Taumarunui.

Mr Meads and wife Verna were not optimistic before the auction that took place at the Waitete rugby club rooms.

Mr Meads said sheep and beef were not fetching high prices and it was a tough time for farmers.

"The emotion will come when I walk out of the farm on the first of February. There will be nowhere to go in the mornings," Mr Meads said.

He had spent the morning shifting stock on the farm and sipped a pint during the auction which lasted for about five minutes.

The 71-year-old, who was just 7 when he moved to a property "about a mile down the road", previously said he was looking forward to an easier life in the small King Country town with his wife, Verna.

"We are both getting too old to manage the farm now. She's a big ask for people our age."

The 55-test veteran, revered by many as the greatest All Black, said he had considered a move to the warmer climate of the Bay of Plenty to his holiday home in Papamoa.

"That was the plan when we bought it a couple of years ago," he said.

"But the wife is a bit of a family person and she doesn't want to be too far away from all her grandchildren - she loves them being around - so we bought a place in town."

Meads is looking forward to some quiet time in his new house, a four-bedroom property in Te Kuiti.