Originally part of a much larger block of land belonging to Fred Tabor, the south west corner was offered for sale to my father Roy, then an 18yr old shepherd, working for Fred.

My father went cap in hand to family members, who lent him the deposit to buy, what the Speirs family have always called “The Beach Farm”.
Then covered in Bracken fern, lupin, and drifting sand dunes, and inhabited by many rabbits, my father Roy set about fencing and stocking the property with Romney sheep and Angus cattle.

Ironically it was the rabbits that caused my father to re-think his long held view that he was destined to spend his life as a bachelor. He invited a mate for an evening rabbit shoot aboard his old Ford pickup. His mate invited his girlfriend, who in turn invited her girlfriend, (my mother Brenda) and the rest, as they say, is history.

Through the years, my father owned other farms, but “The Beach Farm” remained special to him, and to all of us, as the first farm we had, and the place where my dad courted my mother in a Ford pick-up truck, while she held the spotlight and he drove, and shot rabbits through the drivers window, with an old double barrel shotgun.

Many farms and six children later, my dad decided to plant much of the property in pines. With advice from, the then, Forest Service at Waitarere Beach, he planned and began planting the trees. We as children were roped in to help, and as a 19 yr old I can remember the work as demanding and tedious. However it must have kindled an interest, for with my father's early death, I returned to the farm, to continue the work my father had begun.

Not long after, I purchased the property from my family, and feel privileged to have been the recent caretaker of “The Beach Farm”.
I am always mindful of our mortality, and of my father's early death, robbing him and my mother Brenda of the chance to achieve the things they planned and dreamed of in their later years. With this in mind, my wife Kathy and I have decided that we will take the time to live our dreams, while time and our health allow.

While we have some sadness with the sale of this property, we also look forward to the future, knowing that others will take our place and be the next custodians.

Murray Speirs