Moving or Staying put, take a look at the different accommodation on offer
Tell the tales of the trails
Accommodation on our trails tells the story of the locations that we ride.
NZ South Island people are a hardy bunch. Their stories are the foundations of this incredible Aotearoa that we live.
Depending on the trail or trails that you choose they can be:
Basic musterer’s huts
Shearers Quarters
Historic Homestead
Station Guest Quarters
Luxury Lodge
Historic Haunted Hotel
Rustic Gold Miners cottage
They are places to make amazing memories together
Sis, I don’t do camping
What are you looking for to accompany your trail?
Each trail differs, just as we as riders have different ideas about how we would like to explore the wilderness.
If you don’t like camping or very basic musterer’s huts we have sourced accommodation that gives you a little more comfort.
Birchwood Station Boutique Trails
Bespoke Ben Lomond Luxury Trail
we cloverleaf from these accommodations each morning and return each evening.
“A house is made with walls and beams, a home is built with love and dreams”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Heart Filled History
Do you love to know about history?
Are you like, “Sis, tell me more of those amazing stories”
Our horseback adventures are filled with those tales of incredible people of the high country and the locations they lived and worked.
Women who gave birth to children in isolated environments. Then raised them against the odds with no modern equipment or even doctors in close proximity.
Men who fought the elements every day to bring home food for the table and comfort, no matter how basic for their families.
These are the stories told in historic accommodation simply by being here and experiencing this isolation and inspiration.
Horses were the lifeline that these people relied upon to help them succeed.
The people of these locations have a , “number eight wire” mentality. They can fix just about anything because they have to be so resourceful to live in these places.
Magic of a Musterer’s Hut
Musterers are shepherds/esses who tend the sheep or cattle in the high country of New Zealand “Aotearoa.”
A Musterer’s hut is a basic shelter that generally has,
- a fire to cook on
- basic bunks to sleep in
- a wooden floor
- a small very basic kitchen area with some pots and pans
- is located next to a stream/ river or has a tank to catch the stormwater (always boil this water before drinking)
- a horse paddock close by
They are filled with character and although basic, we are always glad to see them.
Nights in these huts are generally filled with story telling and snoring.
Shearers Quarters
“Shearers:” in Aotearoa New Zealand, sheep used to out number humans. Sheep have been part of the life blood of the farming industry of New Zealand for over 100 years.
Shearing is such an important part of that industry. If they are not shorn, sheep can become ill with fly strike and other nasty diseases. Lambs are unable to suckle Mum easily if they are not crutched pre lambing.
Wool is one of the most sustainable products in the world. There is nothing that matches wool for warmth and comfort especially fine merino mixed with possum fur.
With large flocks of sheep mustered off the mountains for shearing, at times the shearers will need to stay at the station for quite a few days. Rising very early and working in a hot shearing shed all day long, shearers work very hard indeed.
Shearers Quarters are the accommodation on a station (farm/ ranch) that has been built to house the shearers while they are working at the station.
