Ngamatea: The Land and the People

Ngamatea is a name which evokes visions of the high country of the central North Island [of New Zealand]. Bounded by the Rangitikei and Ngaruroro rivers, the sheep station is high, remote and often snow-covered in winter. Ngamatea recounts the history of the land from Maori occupation, through the early leasehold years to the era of development from tussock and scrub to highly productive grassland. Above all it is the story of the families who worked the land, and of musterers and packhorse teams, drovers and dogs, cooks and shearers, truck and tractor drivers, poachers and cops who became part of the mystique of the place.