Cameron - A High Country Life

Life on Otematata Station, a 40,000 hectare high country station in Otago, is busy and varied. Philippa Cameron and her husband, Joe, who is the fifth generation to work the farm, help care for this vast tract of land with 30,000 merino sheep and 500 head of cattle.

Its a sparse environment completely at the mercy of the elements, bringing with it many challenges and seasonal demands. Told through the eyes of Philippa in her role as station cook, this is the story of mustering in autumn, lambing in spring, the freezing days of winter and the scorching heat of summer.

Along with looking after her two small girls, her garden and various animals, Philippa feeds the teams of workers. She collects and shares a selection of delicious, hearty recipes with other farm cooks on her popular Instagram page @whats_for_smoko. This book also features Philippas most trusted recipes, tested on many approving musterers.

To generations of ladies
in the kitchen, the backbone
of rural New Zealand

Introduction

My kitchen window, adorned with freshly bottled fruit and a collection of horseshoes that the children have found.

Here lies a tale from my kitchen window, a window that faces east and watches the sun rise each morning. As I look out across the undulating landscape I often see the dust rise from the sheepyards where the men are working. During shearing I hear music pumping across the paddock from the shearing shed and into the kitchen, where every day without fail I smell the arrival of the easterly at three in the afternoon. At the back door, piles of boots ignore the purpose-built rack and, beyond, my little vegetable garden sits proudly in front of a washing line fashioned from two telegraph poles and fencing instruments. Each year my garden teaches me more about the climate here at Otematata Station, a 40,000 hectare high country station in Otago where we are the fifth generation to farm. No matter the season, my kitchen is a hive of activity. With our girls Flora and Evelyn underfoot, eager to help mix icing or more importantly get the first lick of the spatula, there is often a batch of smoko on the go. Dirty bowls sit on the bench waiting for the sink to fill, and despite sweeping the floor regularly there is always the slight crunch of sugar beneath my shoes. Standing at the sink in front my window I can often be found looking out over the landscape, reflecting on the seasons as our family and farm continue to grow.

Otematata Station is a high country station situated in the Waitaki Valley, in the lower half of the South Island. A pastoral lease, it comprises the lowlands that border the small North Otago town of Otematakau, commonly known as Otematata, and stretches over elevated terrain all the way to the Hawkdun Range. Once a remote farming area, Otematata is now a busy summer spot after the construction of two hydro dams on the Waitaki River created the Benmore and Aviemore lakes. The original farmhouses, which relied on the house cows Molly and Daisy for their daily milk, are now near the Otematata township, where a bottle of milk is not far from the bottom of our driveway and the house cows are long retired.

With the stations highest point being 1876 metres above sea level, snow is present throughout the seasons a view that is sadly obstructed by a range behind our house. Beyond those hills there lies a valley that is the gateway to the remote landscape that defines the property. Its a sparse environment completely at the mercy of the elements, with blankets of rich golden tussocks that breathe with the winds, and deep gorges gouged by rivers over millennia.

Otematata Stations roots go back more than a century. My husband Joe Camerons ancestors, Hugh and Sarah Cameron, first purchased the land holding named Aviemore Station in 1891. In 1908 two of their twelve children, Joesph Farrar and Walter Preston, purchased an additional larger run holding named Otematata, and combined the two properties. When Joseph passed away in 1924, Walter took on the management of both the run holdings from his farm Wainui near Kurow, where he and his wife Frances had four children before she sadly died when her youngest was only six years old.

During World War Two, Walter moved to Otematata Station and oversaw the operation of all the properties. When his second son Robert returned home after serving in the Air Force, he took over management of the Wainui property, and Walter stayed on at Otematata. Then in 1950, when Walter retired, his youngest son Joe took on management of Otematata Station along with the newly acquired Awakino Downs, a property near Kurow, completing the 40,000 hectare enterprise.

Joe and his wife Mary were the first generation to raise their children on Otematata Station, but the third generation to farm it. The only son of their three children is my father-in-law, Hugh. My husband Joe (the pool of Cameron men names is shallow) is the eldest child of Hugh and Mandy, and brother to Olivia, who works as a radiographer in Christchurch with her husband Dan and gorgeous children Poppy and Hugo.

Looking out across Lake Benmore, Loch Laird and Lake Aviemore. Otematata Station is in the background.

While Joe grew up on the station, he was always encouraged to chase his dreams further afield. And he did. Joe has a passion for flying, and gained both his fixed-wing and helicopter licences at an early age. After his OE he later gained employment with the airline Jetstar, which saw us stationed in Melbourne and Christchurch. We would often discuss moving home to the station and farming, and both agreed thats where we saw ourselves raising our family, continuing his familys stewardship of the land.

In 2015, when our first daughter Flora was six months old, Joe resigned from his job and we sold our house in Christchurch. We packed up the horse truck and moved to our newly renovated Twizel cottage on the farm. A Twizel cottage in the Waitaki Valley is a lasting footprint of the hydro-scheme development in the sixties. This was the start of our next chapter in life, as farmers.