Historic Castle Hill station sold

Press, 17 November 1976, Page 1

Historic Castle Hill station sold

Mr Max Smith, the Ministry of Works and Development’s project engineer for the Waitaki basin hydro-electric scheme, has bought the Castle Hill sheep and cattle station, beyond Porter’s Pass on the West Coast highway. Mr Smith said in Twizel yesterday that he had bought the property as a family concern. He would' not disclose the price he paid to the Castle Hill Run Company. Castle Hill was advertised for sale at $200,000 a year ago. The property comprises 27,480 acres, of which about 27,000 acres is leasehold, and the rest freehold.

Mr Smith said that his purchase of the property did not indicate his early retirement as engineer in charge of New Zealand’s largest hydro-electric power development project.

“I will have to retire some time, and meanwhile the property will be run by my 20-year-old son, Andrew. He’s there now, and learning how to do the job.” Mr Smith said.

Mr Smith also said that part of the station land would remain the property of the Reid Development Company, “in case it wishes to go ahead with its scheme for an alpine sports and holiday village.”

Mr Smith was referring to plans bv the company which first came to light in 1971, in a town-planning application to the Malvern County Council for site zoning for the village. There were widespread objections to the scheme, and the hearing was deferred for Mr D. J. S. Reid, the company’s principal, to relocate the village on a site less likely to interfere with rare plants, and less likely to be an intrusion into the unusual limestone outcrops which surround the Castle Hill basin.

Since then, Mr Reid’s company has bought freehold land from the station, more to the west of the original site for the village.

The Castle Hill run has historic associations. It was originally taken up by

the Porter brothers, who in 1864 sold the property to John and Charles Enys. A hotel established on station land about this time was an important coaching halt on the route to the West Coast.

The station homestead is at an altitude of 2400 ft, and the site was suggested as being an ideal one for a sanitorium.

When Mr Reid’s plans were announced, there were objections from conservationists that his proposals for a resort population of up to 10,000 could do irreparable harm to scenic, botanical, and archaeological features. A rare Ranunculus grows at Castle Hill, and there are Maori drawings as well as fossil remains.

Mr H. W. Faulkner referred to the sale when he spoke at a meeting of the Central Canterbury Electric Power Board yesterday. As Mr Smith intended to run the property as a sheep station, he said, and the Reid Development Company’s plans could be counted out,” it was an-

other blow to his hope to get grid power cheaply to high-country runs in the Waimakariri basin. Mr Reid said last evening that he was pressing on with development plans for a small part of the Castle Hill area, but on a different site than the original proposal that received so many objections. He said that his company had negotiated with the Crown over the area around the limestone outcrops, and this was to be transferred to the Crown as a reserve. In return for this, the company had been given some land around the Enys area, on the northern edge of the limestone country, near the site of the old hotel. It was in this area that plans were being made for a resort village, in line with the recommendations made in a study of the area conducted by the Tussock and Grasslands Institute. The new site had more trees and was more sheltered from the north-west, Mr Reid said. It was away from the limestone outcrops and the

rare plants of the Castle Hill flats. Plans for the resort were not yet complete, but some of the things envisaged were a village centre with stables, a bunkhouse, a dance hall, and a hash house, or cheap food restaurant. Above this in the trees would be a lodge with more expensive accommodation, Mr Reid said. The site was about 100 acres, and there were plans to build a lake that could be used for ice skating in the winter and canoeing in the summer. There could also be trout ponds and other recreational facilities, such as an archery range and skeet shooting.

Mr Reid said that he had retained some land on the Castle Hill flats where Highland cattle are being run at present. It was intended that this should be developed, and a crofter’s cottage of limestone built which people could visit. As well as the cattle, there would be a variety of high country animals for people to see. This would cover about 150 acres.