Business Rural Winter 2021

| 3 RURAL PEOPLE » High Peak Station Diversity helps family ride out covid storm With the closing of borders, the international hunting market in New Zealand came to a halt – having a dire impact on High Peak’s tourism operation. Richard Loader N estled in a private Canterbury valley at the head of the Selwyn River, High Peak Station can genuinely claim to be one of the most pri- vate hunting destinations anywhere in New Zealand. Owned by the Guild family since 1973, the 4000 hectare property is operated as a four way partner- ship within the family and is home to a diversity of primary ventures that include pastoral farming, bee keeping and year-round tourism activities. The diversity of the operation is what delivers strength to the business partnership, with each of the four couples involved taking responsibility for specific operational elements. Simon Guild, the operation’s Tourism Manager, says it is also a bit like ‘whac-a-mole’. When one thing is up the other thing is down, perfectly il- lustrated by the current shut down of international tourism activities being offset by pastoral farming and bee-keeping. “Our tourism strategy is to have a year round business matching activities to the season, the attributes of the property and the region. We have game hunting during the autumn, skiing in the winter, spring is conferences, flowing through to fishing and summer tourism including farm drives and outdoor experiences not necessarily related to hunting.” Pre-Covid, game hunting was by far the most lucrative and mature part of High Peak’s tourism The guided hunting industry ran a survey across all members of its organisation representing the vast bulk of businesses, extrapolating the results to find that, in broad terms, it equated to $105m of direct foreign investment injected every year into the economy. That’s $105m that has just been forgotten about. “While that pales into insignificance when compared to eighteen billion dollars in tourism, keep in mind that this is regionally and seasonally dispersed low impact, high value tourism. It’s easy to forget this out of hand because it’s not focused on a particular town, a well-known business, or where people might equate votes to be. There is simply no political advantage in it.” Because of High Peak Station’s diverse business portfolio, it will ride out and survive the storm caused by the pandemic, but Simon fears that not everyone in the industry will survive, particularly those not diversified away from tourism. “One year’s shut down is difficult, two year’s shut down is very difficult, three year’s shut down…. I know out-fitters in our industry who had good vi- able businesses employing people and paying taxes who are now on the dole. “You cannot just shut your business down for a 1000 plus days. Anyone who thinks that a product geared towards a particular level of international clientele can be adapted to a New Zealand market needs a reality check.” High Peak Station needs to start making deci- sions in September about where it will be operating in the following year’s hunting season but right now there is a very dark cloud of uncertainty that chal- lenges any decision-making. “We don’t know where we’re going to stand at the end of the year and whether my hundred plus clients for next year should book flights or bump their trip another year or two. “The outlook for us is the hope that when things come back there will be a hiss and a roar as the backlog is cleared. For the industry, there will be attrition and that will be largely forgotten about, unless there is political advantage to be gained by recognising it.” • Footnote: At time of publication High Peak Station was one of a large number of Canterbury farms with substantial flood damage after torrential rain hit the region at the end of May. Station owner Hamish Guild said High Country farms like his suffered substantial infrastructure damage with around 25 to 30 kilometres of deer fencing damaged and farm tracks, access roads and bridges washed out. He said restoring damaged farm infrastructure could cost upwards of $500,000. “The strategic tourism assets protection programme seemed haphazard and it seems the Government feels no obligation to explain why certain businesses got large sums of money and direct competing businesses in the same town doing the same thing got nothing.” Contact Ross Chambers General Manager ph: 03 348 5080 or email: ross@provelco.co.nz www.provelco.co.nz Proud to be working with High Peak Station BA MURRAY LTD VERSATILE - ROBUST - PRECISE “Our Machine Can Be Perfectly Adapted To Suit Your Requirements” • Versatile From Direct Drilling To Cultivated Soils • Metering Of Up To Three Individual Components • High Coulter Pressure • Suitable For All Sowing Conditions FARMING WITH PASSION portfolio, accounting for 90-95% of revenue. When Covid happened the borders were closed the international hunting market simply came to a halt, with a catastrophic impact on High Peak’s tourism operation. “If we didn’t have the pastoral farming and bee- keeping it would have been incredibly difficult. “When the decision was made to close the bor- ders ten days into our season we had already com- mitted the vast bulk of our fixed operational cost for the season. If you were just relying on the hunting side of the business it would be a much tougher conversation with your bank manager, suppliers and customers depending on what stage the business is at in its lifecycle.” Simon says the Government’s response to tour- ism has been, at best, lukewarm. Searching for the right phrase, Simon’s actual adjective is much stronger. “As an industry we feel largely ignored. In one hand it seemed the support went to highly recog- nised tourism businesses. The strategic tourism assets protection programme seemed haphazard and it seems the Government feels no obligation to explain why certain businesses got large sums of money and direct competing businesses in the same town doing the same thing got nothing. As a rural regionally and seasonally dispersed small land based tourism business often dealing in higher-end clientele, we’re easy to forget, because there’s absolutely no political advantage to do otherwise. And so, we are forgotten.”