Castlepoint Station

Say Castlepoint to any New Zealander of a certain age, and they'll know where you mean. It's real Country Calendar country up here - what farmers call summer dry, and typical East Coast Wairarapa. Windswept cliff-top paddocks and rugged hills grow the best carpet wool in the world, and tough men and women have have lived on and worked the land for generations. The catch with Castlepoint is that all those generations haven't necessarily grown up there - the current owners are seventh-generation farmers from New York State, though with an unexpectedly strong connection with New Zealand. Kupe discovered it, Captain Cook named it, and Thomas Guthrie drove a mob of merino round the coast to settle here in 1848, making Castlepoint one of our oldest established stations. Its turbulent history has produced some memorable characters and endearing stories, and they have been brought together here, giving an insight into the working station as it is today - vibrant, successful and poised to take advantage of farming in the technological age.