At the mouth of the emerald green Akitio River where the hills fall steep and dry to the sea, lie some of the North Island’s oldest farming properties. Moanaroa Station, once part of neighbouring Marainanga, is home to New Zealand’s second oldest Angus Stud.

Moanaroa is a rugged property, summer dry, winter-wild. Proprietor Dan and Barbara Ramsden has known westerlies strong enough to blow both horse and rider across a fence. But in late summer with the surf whispering gently along the property’s 11.3km of coastline, it’s easy to focus on the history.

Well beyond the reach of rail and with negligble access inland, coastal freighters were the region’s main trade and communications link for nearly a hundred years, the reef which shelters the beach and river mouth making landings less challenging than many.