Your hosts: Mandy and Rob Stanley
Mandy and Rob come from quite different backgrounds. Mandy grew up in Ireland and England until immigrating to New Zealand as a young girl.
Rob and Mandy
Mandy and Ted |
Mandy’s passion for horses was really fired when as a three-year-old her Aunt Margaret put her up on her 18-hand Irish hunter called “Ennis”.
Mandy's vege patch |
Since then Mandy has spent many hours in the saddle guiding treks, has enjoyed success in the show ring and the thrill of riding to the hounds with the Brackenfield Hunt.
Mandy is also an avid gardener and takes pleasure in providing visitors with good wholesome home-grown meals.
Rob has spent most of his working life either in the mountains hunting, trapping and guiding, or fishing and diving in the sea.
| Rob inherited his love of horses from his mother, a Chatham Islander who was all but born on a horse, and a love for the sea from his father who took the family fishing at every opportunity from an early age.
Rob and Mandy have two children, James, 22, who lives and works on farms in South Canterbury and Caitlin, 10, who attends nearby Renwick School. |
Feeding pet lambs |
The family enjoys riding and has horses on the property as well as cattle, sheep, chooks and the usual cats and dogs.
The Phaedra Bay |
They also take every opportunity to spend time on the water on their H28 yacht “Phaedra Bay” which is moored at nearby Havelock Marina.
Mandy and Rob spent the last 18 years creating and developing Hurunui Horse Treks into one of the great rides of the world.
Visitors to Hurunui Horse Treks ford a river. |
Operating quality multi-day horseback adventures through the high country of Canterbury and Marlborough they have enjoyed many adventures in the mountains with people from all over the world.
Deciding it was time for a change Mandy and Rob sold Hurunui and went looking for a new home where they could develop a unique country homestay and still enjoy the mountains, the sea and the people.
After months of searching they found “Nutmeg Creek” at the top of the Onamalutu Valley. The Onamalutu River is a tributary of the Wairau River which drains from the mountains of the Richmond Range on the Wairau’s North bank.
