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Otago Daily Times
04-07-2025
- Otago Daily Times
King's honour for home-grown cop
West Coast-based cop Terri Middleton. PHOTO: SUPPLIED Little recognised in Queenstown last month was the awarding of a gong to home-grown Terri Middleton. A member of the Middleton family who farm Queenstown Hill, the 59-year-old senior police constable was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to the police and the community in the King's Birthday Honours. In the list she was principally under her married name, Fairhall, however she's kept her maiden name over her police career. That whole career, since 1992, has been on the West Coast, where she's worked with victims of child abuse and family harm. And as school community officer since '02 she's worked in drug education, with kids in and out of school, often on a voluntary basis, and led engagement with youngsters in the Gloriavale Christian Community. It's "impossible to count the lives Middleton has changed for the better, or quantify the harm prevented by her engagement with some of the most vulnerable people in our society," police commissioner Richard Chambers said when her honour was announced. Despite her years on the Coast, where she and her husband raised three sons, Middleton still calls Queenstown home, and recently finished building a holiday house here. Educated at Queenstown Primary and Wakatipu High, "it was mainly the sporting stuff I enjoyed". She later played rugby league for the West Coast, while her younger siblings Stephen, Murray and Kelvin all played rugby — the latter representing the Highlanders. She recalls undertaking "lots of chores"on the farm, including mustering sheep on horseback and hay-making. Her first job after school was at the council, where she graduated from cashier to assistant financial controller, followed by two years' OE. Though she returned to council, "I thought I always wanted to be a cop — I wanted to make a difference and to help people — but I didn't think I'd be able to". Over a few drinks a friend talked to into applying, and she was accepted into Wellington's "old school" police college. During a three-week secondment with Queenstown police she recalls going with cops to the house of a deceased Arrowtowner that neighbours suspected had bombs and booby traps all through it. She squeezed in through a toilet window, "and ended up falling down and getting my foot stuck in the toilet". Middleton's undecided on living back in Queenstown when her career's over. "Not too sure ... I miss my home here, but, yeah, it's lovely on the Coast too."
Otago Daily Times
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Prime farmland snapped up for $9m
Kahu Heights has been bought by Eastburn Station owner Tim Edney. PHOTO: SUPPLIED Prominent Wakatipu farm owner Tim Edney has bought a 65ha slice of prime Crown Terrace land following post-auction negotiations. Known as Kahu Heights, the property, comprising two titles, had gone to mortgagee auction on June 6, but was passed in by the vendor after bidding reached $7.5 million. Edney's company, The Station at Waitiri Ltd, subsequently bought the property — which includes a renovated five-bedroom homestead — for an undisclosed price, but believed to be between $8.5m and $9m. "They just had to squeeze me up, so I just had to kill a few more sheep," he said. Mr Edney already owns the neighbouring Eastburn Station, which is about 1500ha. "Land on the Crown Terrace is extremely tightly held, so when this opportunity came up — in fairly sad circumstances — to buy the old homestead, it just had to happen. "It was the original homestead for Eastburn, so it's just nice to put them back together — I'm a very pleased purchaser." In addition to running stock, "we'll use it to add to our grain production, and it's got some good silage on it". There was a consent in place for five luxury two-bedroom cottages on the smaller title, but "I honestly think that site is better for a very nice lodge or major homestead". A part-time Arrowtowner, Mr Edney also owns Waitiri Station on the Crown Terrace, Wentworth and Glenroy in Gibbston and Arcadia, near Glenorchy. A popular location for film shoots, Arcadia is understood to have been used as a setting early this year for Hollywood mega-star Brad Pitt's latest movie, Heart of the Beast. Meanwhile, local Ray White owner Bas Smith, who co-listed Kahu Heights with colleague Peter Werbrouck, confirmed it sold following the auction and said he expected it would be settled in full by the end of this week. He noted the combined valuation of the two lots, as at last September, was $7.17m.
Otago Daily Times
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Farm owner buys 65ha Kahu Heights
Kahu Heights has been bought by Eastburn Station owner Tim Edney. PHOTO: SUPPLIED Prominent Wakatipu farm owner Tim Edney has bought a 65ha slice of prime Crown Terrace land following post-auction negotiations. Known as Kahu Heights, the property, comprising two titles, had gone to mortgagee auction on June 6, but was passed in by the vendor after bidding reached $7.5 million. Edney's company, The Station at Waitiri Ltd, subsequently bought the property — which includes a renovated five-bedroom homestead — for an undisclosed price, but believed to be between $8.5m and $9m. "They just had to squeeze me up, so I just had to kill a few more sheep," he said. Mr Edney already owns the neighbouring Eastburn Station, which is about 1500ha. "Land on the Crown Terrace is extremely tightly held, so when this opportunity came up — in fairly sad circumstances — to buy the old homestead, it just had to happen. "It was the original homestead for Eastburn, so it's just nice to put them back together — I'm a very pleased purchaser." In addition to running stock, "we'll use it to add to our grain production, and it's got some good silage on it". There was a consent in place for five luxury two-bedroom cottages on the smaller title, but "I honestly think that site is better for a very nice lodge or major homestead". A part-time Arrowtowner, Mr Edney also owns Waitiri Station on the Crown Terrace, Wentworth and Glenroy in Gibbston and Arcadia, near Glenorchy. A popular location for film shoots, Arcadia is understood to have been used as a setting early this year for Hollywood mega-star Brad Pitt's latest movie, Heart of the Beast. Meanwhile, local Ray White owner Bas Smith, who co-listed Kahu Heights with colleague Peter Werbrouck, confirmed it sold following the auction and said he expected it would be settled in full by the end of this week. He noted the combined valuation of the two lots, as at last September, was $7.17m.
Otago Daily Times
06-06-2025
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
Rowers on world stage
Wakatipu High's Seb Watson, left, and Harry Lightfoot proved their rowing chops with a record win in the U18 double sculls at this year's Maadi Cup on Lake Karapiro. PHOTO: SUPPLIED Two Wakatipu High 17-year-old rowers are furiously training and fundraising to represent New Zealand at world under-19 champs this winter. They are Arrowtowner Harry Lightfoot and Queenstowner Seb Watson, who sensationally broke a record of about 20 years' standing when they claimed gold in the U18 double sculls at this year's national secondary schools Maadi Cup regatta. Following trials, Harry's made NZ's team for the U19 worlds in Lithuania in August, which will be preceded by six weeks' training in Cambridge. He'll row in the double with Nathan Strachan, from Auckland's Macleans College, who won the U18 single sculls at this year's Maadi. Seb, meanwhile, has made the U19 NZ development team who are off to the Continental Challenge Cup regatta in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the United States, where he'll compete in multiple events including a mixed eight. Both trips are solely self-funded, Harry's costs reaching $20,000 and Seb's $8500 — a Givealittle page is running for the pair who are also fundraising themselves, including a raffle in Harry's case. Both have been rowing since year 9 at Wakatipu High, but have come on particularly over the past two years under Whakatipu Rowing Club coach John Morrison. Last year they won golds at Maadi in the U17 double and coxed quad, and they repeated the dose at U18 level on Cambridge's Lake Karapiro this year. For their upcoming worlds they've upped their training to 10 or 11 times a week including gym, rowing machine and on-water work. "Normally there's the big group trainings but at the moment there's just like me and Seb in a double or we'll be in singles, and it's freezing," Harry says. Both boys say they enjoy the social side of rowing — "I just enjoy being with my mates", Seb says — but also the competitive side. Both intend carrying on when they finish school this year, initially with the Whakatipu Rowing Club this next season — Seb's off to Canterbury University, and Harry's still deciding his next move. Harry follows in the wake of local rowing star Marley King Smith who competed at the past two U19 worlds.
Otago Daily Times
30-05-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Son of Arrowtown's colourful life
Jim Childerstone, aka 'Five-mile Fred', who died recently, aged 90, was well known to many Whakatipu residents despite living out of town for the past 30 years. Philip Chandler delves into his full life and his interesting take on wilding pines. Forestry consultant, logger, writer, hiker, golfer, adventurer ... the list goes on. Third-generation Arrowtowner Jim Childerstone, who died recently, aged 90, might have lived with his wife Margot in North Otago for the past 30 years, but Arrowtown was still where his heart was. Raised there, his parents were Mary and Walter, and Mary's father was well-known local doctor, William Ferguson. When almost 7 he and Mary joined Walter in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where he developed tea plantations. However, it was World War 2, and as Japan was about to invade they escaped by boat to South Africa. At one school he learnt rugby "the South African way under a former Springbok", he said. On arriving home he returned to Arrowtown School. He wrote he and school mates risked their lives exploring old gold mining tunnels. In his book, Up the Rees Valley, he wrote about 60-plus years of local trips and tramps with friends including summiting, with a schoolmate, the Remarkables in 1952 during a challenging 16-hour day. Margot says at Lincoln College, near Christchurch, where he received an agricultural diploma and post-grad degree in soil and water, he paid for most of his books from goldpanning in Arrowtown. She adds he stayed an extra two years to play on the college basketball team. He started his journalism career at Auckland's Herald newspaper, but had the opportunity to earn more as a pneumatic drill operator before a stint as a Sydney Morning Herald court reporter. He later travelled to Europe, sleeping on beaches in Greece, then in Canada worked on the Calgary Herald and was a part-time ski patroller in Banff. He and Margot, who grew up in Argentina, met in a London pub and married close by, in Hampstead, in '68. Jim worked for the British government's Central Office of Information which relocated him to the Solomon Islands. "We had two and a-half years, which was fantastic," Margot says, "and Jim trained some young Solomon Islanders as reporters." They had a summer in Queenstown, Jim working as an Earnslaw stoker, then returned to England. They popped back for good in the mid-1970s and bought a 5.5-hectare Closeburn property, near Queenstown, which was about 70% covered in wilding pines. They lived in their pantechnicon, Margot recalls, while Jim built a log cabin from Corsican pines. Visitors commented on its lovely smell, she says — they later moved into a larger residence built of Douglas firs milled above One Mile Creek. Jim operated a portable mill, cutting timber, mostly wildings, for houses in nearby Sunshine Bay and Fernhill but also over at Walter Peak, at the Arrowtown golf course and even Stewart Island. He set up a timber yard in Industrial Place, then a larger one called Closeburn Timber Corner where today's Glenda Dr is. Meanwhile, he wrote his 'Five-mile Fred' column in Mountain Scene over three years — named after Queenstown's Five Mile Creek, not Frankton's later Five Mile. They were his and mates like 'Twelve-mile Trev's' musings on topics of the day from "up on the diggings". His columns made a book, Of gold dust, nuggets & bulldust, accompanied by Garrick Tremain cartoons. The Childerstones also developed the Closeburn Alpine Park campground, but were badly burnt in the '87 sharemarket crash. The couple, who eventually paid off most of their debts, moved first to Arrowtown then, helped by Lotto winnings, bought in Hampden, North Otago, in '94. Jim still frequented Queenstown, staying in hotels with Margot when she'd bring through Spanish and Italian tours during her days as a tour guide. He established a forestry consultancy, and took a stand against the wholesale destruction of wilding 'pests'. "There are practical ways of attacking the problem rather than the gung-ho attitude of fundamentalist conservation groups," he told Scene on the release of his book, The Wilding Conifer Invasion — Potential Resource or Pest Plant, in 2017. Pointing also to the ugliness of sprayed Douglas firs on hillsides, he argued wilding trees could be harvested for high-grade building timber and biofuels could be extracted from wood waste while also applauding locals Michael Sly and Mathurin Molgat for tapping wildings for essential oil products. Queenstown's Kim Wilkinson, who recalls hiking in the hills with Margot and Jim on Sundays before enjoying their hospitality, says "Jim was still hiking around the hills in his late 80s and even in his later years had the mental energy and enthusiasm of a young man in his 20s". Margot says "people are coming out of the woodwork saying 'he did this for me', nobody has a bad word to say about him". She reveals before he died there had been moves made for them to potentially retire to a pensioner flat in Arrowtown.
