Page 108 - NZ Hereford Magazine 2023

Herefords

& helicopters

for Hamish

Hamish and Abby McKerchar at Shrimpton’s Hill Herefords.

Words: Rebecca Ryan. Photos: Rebecca Ryan/supplied if you want to come back, it’ll always be here’.”
After leaving school, he spent a year as a jackaroo in Australia,
amish McKerchar’s family has a long and proud before returning to New Zealand to train as a helicopter pilot.
farming history in New Zealand. “Ever since I was a three-year-old, I just had this thing with
The 32-year-old’s move home to Shrimpton’s helicopters. I’ve always wanted to fly.’’
Hill in South Canterbury marks the sixth Once qualified as a pilot, he moved back to Australia and
Hgeneration to be involved in farming since the worked for North Australian Helicopters. Most of his flying work
first McKerchars arrived in New Zealand in 1864. Like those was mustering on stations in the Northern Territory, dealing
before them, Hamish, and his wife Abby, who are now heading with massive numbers of cattle – up to 15,000 in a single mob.
into their fourth year on the family farm, are working to While he loved the mustering work, and the Australian
preserve their slice of paradise for future generations. experience, he says it was a “young, single man’s game”. After
The McKerchar family started out farming in Southland, seven years, he was ready for a new challenge, and made the
where they established one of the early Border Leicester sheep move to Queenstown, to work for The Helicopter Line.
studs in 1869. While Hamish’s great-grandfather was serving in “I needed another string to my bow – I didn’t want to just
World War 1, the family sold up in Southland and moved north be a mustering pilot.”
to South Canterbury – not expecting him to return home. When Hamish met Abby in 2017, he was clear from the outset
“He got back into Lyttelton and got a telegram [telling him] he planned to move back to the family farm at some stage – it
to get off in Timaru,’’ Hamish says. “He said it was the saddest was part of who he was and was what he wanted to end up doing.
day of his life because the draw of home and Southland, that’s Abby had her own business in Christchurch before joining
what kept him going through the war.’’ Hamish in Queenstown, where she worked as a personal
He later bought Shrimpton’s Hill, which was taken over trainer and nutritionist at Millbrook Resort. She did not come
by Hamish’s grandparents in 1952. They established the from a rural background, but grew to love spending weekends
Shrimpton’s Hill Hereford Stud in 1969, before Hamish’s and holidays on the farm.
parents, John and Liz, took over in 1990. In 2023, the farm’s They had planned to move back to the farm in 2020, but
Herefords herd consists of 750 cows and about 750 support the closure of New Zealand’s borders and the announcement
stock. They hold an annual on-farm bull sale at the end of of the country’s first level 4 lockdown in March sped things
September, selling about 200 Hereford bulls. up. In hindsight, the lockdown came at an ideal time as it
Hamish had always planned to continue the family legacy gave them the chance to settle in on the farm without any
on the 1420ha farm, but his parents had encouraged him to disruptions. There were some nerves about the move to rural
pursue other interests and travel first. South Canterbury, but Abby’s adjustment to farm life has been
“Dad, especially, said to me, ‘Go and do something else and smooth sailing so far.

106 HEREFORD MAGAZINE Year 2023