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with “Personalized horse riding to suit you” |
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Mustering sheep on
horseback at Te Taunga |
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Te Taunga is located in the south of the South Island, New
Zealand in an area known as The Catlins and is where your
adventure with ‘Te Taunga Adventures’ begins. While The Catlins was once known as |
We are
located just off the Southern Scenic Route
between
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Te Taunga - March 2002
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Te Taunga is the name of our farm and means ‘The Jewel’ in Maori. Te Taunga is our Jewel, as a family we are
all very passionate about our farm
and sustaining it for future generations.
We realize its rugged beauty
has a lot to offer not only for breeding our tough Perendale x Texel sheep and hardy Black Stabilizer Cattle but for everyone to experience which is
why Cara has started Te Taunga Adventures to give you a farm adventure you’ll
be sure to treasure. Te Taunga is a jewel we are offering to share with you
so book your Adventure Horse Ride with us now and put yourself in this
picture.
Te Taunga Farm Facts and Figures |
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Certified organic sheep and beef farm located in the Catlins. Certified with Agri-quality Owned by Bruce & Denise McGill
who have 3 adult children Cara, Heidi & Ben. Cara runs Te Taunga Adventures “Personalized Horse Riding to suit you” Farm Area: 660 hectare 500 hectares grass,160 Native forest Stock: 2300 Perendale/Texel breeding ewes 650
Replacement Ewe Hogget’s 20 Rams Perendale, Risslington Black Stabilizer Cattle, 165 Breeding cows 100 yearlings (Heifers and Steers) 3 Black Stabilzer Bulls, 1 Charlois
Bull And of course the horses |
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For the McGill family Te Taunga began in 1963 when Garth
and Lil McGill, the founders of the legacy we have today, brought a run down
farm at Newhaven, Garth and Lil were both hard workers and soon transformed
the place. Since those early days of broken down fences and poor
access Te Taunga has been continually developed over the years and with
additional land being brought. In 1980
Bruce (Garth and Lil’s 2nd son) and wife Denise starting farming
at Te Taunga with 400 ha of steep rough hill country with a low import system
(all grass). From the beginning Bruce and Denise had a strong
interest in organics. In 1985 they brought 80 ha of neighbouring land giving
the farm some flat ground more suited to fattening stock than the steep
hills. In 1990 Bruce and Denise were awared the Sir Geoffery Peren Trophy – awarded
by the New Zealand Perendale Society. 1999 Brought 180 ha on tunnel hill a rather run down
farm but a great asset to Te Taunga as it has good fresh water streams, this
purchase gave us a total of 660 ha of which 500 is grazable, although some is
still only semi developed is great for wintering breeding cows. |
Looking over Owaka river to Te
Taunga – 1963
Left:
Original McGill family at Te Taunga Garth and Lil with their 5 children (from
left Pam, Bruce, Christine, Garth, Lil, Sarah and John Right:
Horses have always been a part of Te Taunga, Bruce on Jimmy with a friend on
Silver after cooling off in the Owaka river outside the Family home |
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In 2000 Te Taunga Farms gained full Organic
Certification with Agri-quality December 2002 Cara came home after studying Adventure
Recreation at SIT, to work on the farm and started taking horse rides to
research the demand, to discover there was a high demand for activities in
The Catlins. Te Taunga Adventures was
soon formed and has continued to grow since. 2003 Te Taunga became a study farm for The Agricultural
Research Group on Sustainability (ARGOS) a long term 2005 took part in the Balance Farm Environment Awards and received two Innovation
awards, one for ‘The conversion of a large sheep and beef farm to an organic
enterprise, certified under the Agri-quality trademark and the formation of a
small Co-op to sell organic produce directly to Sainsbury’s supermarket chain
in the 2006 Te Taunga is still involved with February 2007 Bruce attends 3 day Soil Science Seminar
and Workshop by American Soil Science
lecturer Dr Arden Andersen, one of the
world’s top consultants on
advanced soil and crop management. Denise and Cara attend Human health
lecture by Dr Arden Andersen. For more information on Dr Arden Andersen view www.ardenandersen.com Recommended
reading ‘Real Medicine Real Health’ By
Dr Arden Andersen |
Cara, Bruce, Denise,
Heidi and Ben, 1994
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The McGill’s are strong believers in working
with nature, not against it; they are focused and passionate about the
land and what they do. They have developed the land over the years to make it
more economic for farming while preserving
areas of native forest and maintaining
water quality by putting springs underground to eliminate or minimize
stock pollution of waterways. For the
McGill’s farming is really about the caretaking of land for following
generations and a sustainable future. People are becoming more aware of the
environment, their health and what they are eating. Te
Taunga farm has a strong focus on
producing quality organic meat,
for which there is now a very high demand world wide as grass fed red meat is
becoming recognized as a Health
product. Organic farming has a
great future in |
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We welcome your enquiries on our
organic farming system - feel free to contact Bruce, Denise or Cara. |
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HOME OUR HORSES RIDING OPTIONS SAFETY YOUR HOSTS CUSTOMER COMMENTS ENQUIRIES
& BOOKINGS |
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Bookings and
Enquiries Cara McGill Te Taunga Adventures The Catlins, Mobile/Text
+64 (0)27 629 2904 Email
classiccharm@hotmail.com |
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