Manderley - venue of country festival and popular farm tours
FARM TOURS
Your hosts Ross and Mary Millar
Manderley has been a popular destination for over 20 years attracting thousands of visitors from all over the world. Come and see top New Zealand sheep dogs gather a mob of sheep from nearly hills herding them down for their master for your photo opportunity. These champion sheep dogs will take whistle commands from half a mile distance with speed and agility. Ross will talk about his life experiences farming the hills over the last 30 years a sheep shearing demonstration is included.
Your tour includes the Manderley homestead large landscaped gardens where morning or afternoon tea is served around the pool side. The house was built originally in 1876 and has had alterations over the years in keeping with the character of the homestead. You are welcome to look through the house.
Manderley is situated on the shores of Lake Forsyth Banks Peninsula on the East Coast of the South Island, the nearest city being Christchurch which is 40 minutes drive by car. Manderley is a 750 acres (300 hectare) farm. A property with stunning bush clad hills with spectacular vistas and is stocked with 100 beef cattle and 1400 sheep. Cattle are farmed for beef and the sheep are farmed for their wool and meat.
Super fine merino wool from Manderley is sold at auction for the fashion houses of Europe and lamb is sold in the U.S.A. and Europe. Shearing is done once a year before lambing in August. The sheep are not interfered with during the lambing season which starts the middle of September and last for four weeks.
Sheep graze on the hills all year-round and are mustered by clever sheep dogs especially bred for this purpose. The collie or heading dog as it is called in New Zealand is usually black and white and sometimes called an eye dog musters the sheep to the farmer. These dogs have a natural ability even at two months old to gather sheep and do not bark when working with sheep.
The “huntaway dog” is a cross between a collie and a Labrador and is much larger. The huntaway’s job is to chase the sheep, barking as it does so. All sheep dogs play a major part in the running of the farm and Ross often comments that it would be almost impossible to farm without the help of his dogs. Dogs are trained from about six months old and are fully trained seven months later.
For mobility around the farm Ross uses a four wheel motor bike. In the days before motorized farm transport horses were used. Manderley is divided into 30 paddocks that range from sea level to 1500 feet above sea level. Water that is used on the farm comes from a natural spring at the very top of the farm and is piped to various water tanks for livestock and for use in the house.
Ross and Mary Millar purchased Manderley in 1974 and have two children, Mandy and Richard. With a stream to play in, many trees to climb and spending many nights sleeping under the stars Mandy and Richard had a wonderful childhood.
The house, a two bedroom villa, was built in 1876 from totara timber, a New Zealand native grown on the property. The timber was sawn by hand and dragged down the hill by horses. Additions were made in approximately 1920. Ross and Mary have renovated most rooms. The garden has been completely designed by a landscape designer under the watchful eye of Ross and Mary.
The farm was originally known by the early settlers as Catons Bay as the sea once came to where the homestead now stands. The previous owners to Ross and Mary changed the name of the property preferring the name Manderley chosen from Du Maurier’s novel ‘Rebecca’.
Ross & Mary Millar, Akaroa Highway, Little River, Banks Peninsula, New Zealand
Tel +643 325-1156 Fax +643 325-1187 Email marymillar@clear.net.nz
New Zealand Map of Banks Peninsula
