Horse Flat Brooks Road, Murchison, Tasman

SOLD - Dairy Farm? Or International Lodge

SOLD - Until 2004 this 288 ha Murchison property was a fully functioning dairy farm, more recently leased to a neighbour for dairy support grazing.

For much of its length the property adjoins the Matakitaki River, which is one of the tributaries to the Buller River.

Murchisons economy is based on two industries - farming and tourism. Tourism has been valued at $23 million p.a., largely based on the Murchison rivers of which the Matakitaki is one, and this river is one of the most highly used kayaking rivers in New Zealand. It has two excellent whitewater sections on it (Whitewater NZ).

The trout fishing here is world-renowned and according to NZ Fishing in the lower and middle reaches of the river fish numbers are good and around the 3 lb mark in size. Fish numbers in the upper reaches are lower but can reach trophy size. The nearby Korimako Lodge caters to international anglers for this very reason.

According to local fishing guide and writer, Shane Mirfin, "The Buller River system is one of the world's greatest brown trout fisheries, and is fed by the Mangles, Matiri and Matakitaki rivers. The Matakitaki is a great blue river, alluvial in nature in its upper reaches and...a fabulous dry fly stream - rich in gold and still mined to this day"

However if farming is more likely to be your focus here, hot summers are the norm with a generally reliable rainfall which provides ideal summer growing conditions, well suited to dairy production.

A significant area of the property is suited to making of hay or silage and the free draining nature of the soils makes it suitable for the grazing of large mobs of cattle over the winter months.

Improvements on the property comprise a modest four bedroom weatherboard family home, a smaller two bedroom cottage, a redundant herringbone cowshed and sundry farm buildings.

This is an opportunity that offers considerable scope for a new owner to offer middle - upper end tourist accommodation, as well as, or instead of running a successful dairy, Bull bee