Gold Under The Manuka: Mangaorapa Station – A Farming Story Like No Other is a detailed account backed by hundreds of original photographs and documents – many never seen before. These include bank deposit slips, a job diary excerpt, original letters, and progress photographs taken from the very beginning of development. Thanks to meticulous records kept over several decades.

This expansive history spans three generations of the Mouat family ownership, beginning with the author’s grandfather Billy Mouat who left school at age 12 to work as a labourer. His relentless work ethic led him to establish a transport company whose success then enabled him to purchase a 485-acre farm near Takapau. Believing strongly in land ownership and the power of machinery and hard work  to build a better life.

That pioneering spirit carried through to his sons, Don and Max. After selling the W.Mouat carrying business, and looking for a bigger challenge, they purchased in 1946 an undeveloped flat-to-rolling block in Hawke’s Bay known as Mangaorapa Station – land even the government thought was unsuitable for returning World War Two soldiers. Local farmers were also sceptical of these ‘truck drivers turned farmers’ and gave them little hope of success.

Armed with courage, bulldozers and custom-designed ploughs in 1947, they trailblazed breaking-in the land by crushing and ploughing the dense manuka beneath the ground to create rich, fertile soil. In 1953, they purchased the neighbouring Mangaorapa Top Block, and in 1958 the author’s father Don took sole ownership of the 4792-acre property. With incredible vision he developed world-class infrastructure – roads, bridges and buildings – and helped revolutionise many farming practices across the country.

In 1979, Bill and his brother Bryan took ownership of the station. Over the following decades they expanded and consolidated operations with large-scale projects which included water storage dams, water reticulation systems and reserve feed silage pits. They moved to free-lambing, high-fertility ewes and, in the late 1990s, significantly increased Friesian bull beef numbers for the export market. Under their stewardship, Mangaorapa became one of New Zealand’s most productive and progressive cropping, sheep, and cattle stations – later expanding into viticulture.