Grazing on the harbour

Summer Road, Matakohe. Photo / Supplied

SUMMER RD, MATAKOHE

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SIZE: Land 227ha, house 35sq m.

PRICE INDICATION: $2.1 million-plus.

INSPECT: By appointment.

ON THE WEB: https://www.bayleys.co.nz/Listing/Northland/Kaipara/Matakohe/1200354

SCHOOL ZONES: Matakohe School, Ruawai College.

CONTACT: John Barnett, 021 790 393, john.barnett@bayleys. co.nz

TENDER: Closes 4pm, March 2.

Ken and Heather Whitehead have for 44 years farmed the Northland land that has been in Heather's family since 1892.

The couple spend less time on their 227ha beef grazing farm now that they are in their 70s, but at the weekends Ken is still responsible for moving some of their 220 head of stock.

"We have always put a lot of emphasis on stock management," he says of the farm - a proven beef producer that these days focuses on finishing Angus and Friesian cattle for the works and McDonald's market.

"We have also made a real effort to build up and retain the quality of the pasture which is some of the best in the district."

The farm, on the banks of the Kaipara Harbour and near Matakohe, is still in the three titles Ken and Heather bought one by one between 1973 and 1993.

The couplehas always run the farm from nearby Ruawai, where they still live, and did not need a large homestead at the property near Matakohe.

In 2002 they built a studio cottage next to the shores of Home Bay - one of the property's three beaches that stretch along the Northern Wairoa River.

Launching a boat from Home Bay is easy when the tide is nearly full and it is a safe swimming and kayaking spot.

The farm's 46 paddocks are divided with electric fencing and linked by an extensive network of tracks. There is also plenty of tractor friendly country for hay and cropping production.

Summer Road, Matakohe. Photo / Supplied

The property includes a two-stand woolshed with sheep yards, a large set of cattle yards, a hay shed and an airstrip.

A diesel pump pushes water from a spring-fed reservoir into a hill tank where it can be reticulated down to the paddocks, ensuring a year-round, drought-proof water supply.

Ken says new owners could keep running the farm as a standalone unit, run it with another farm or as dairy support if they wanted to develop the property's numerous lifestyle options.

As well as 215ha of flat to undulating hill grazing land that includes several potential building sites with coastal views, the property has 10ha of native kauri, puriri and manuka bush and more than 2ha of radiata pine trees.

Summer Road, Matakohe. Photo / Supplied

Ken and Heather are happy with their decision to "quit while they are ahead" and are looking forward to spending more time with their friends in Ruawai, and travelling.

"We've got a bucket list."