Hongkonger tries life on a New Zealand farm as she swaps high fashion for the high country in a grown-up gap year

I am perched on the back of a Toyota Land Cruiser bouncing along narrow farm tracks that wind up to the Afton Saddle at Walter Peak Station. Also crammed into this tiny space at the back of the “ute” (Antipodean for a farm or utility truck) are 22 boisterous sheep dogs, several shepherd’s sticks, a spare tyre and a collection of tools for cutting and mending wire fences. Growing up in Hong Kong, I thought I was used to feeling cramped. Evidently, it could have been worse.

In the front of the vehicle, away from the dogs, are five other farm workers. Today’s task involves setting out at first light to climb almost 1,000 metres to reach the highest point where the cattle are grazing, to muster them back to lower ground in order to wean the calves from their mothers and sort them for sale the next day. It promises to be a memorable Monday morning.

In a previous life, Mondays involved catching up on a weekend’s worth of e-mails before a team meeting strategising the week ahead. Seeking respite from the episodic nature of a desk-based nine-to-five job in Hong Kong, I decided to embark on a grown-up gap year that took me halfway across the world to New Zealand – the home of Hobbiton, the haka and manuka honey.

While many of my fellow backpackers looked to Queenstown as the adventure and party capital of their Kiwi experience, bungee jumping by day and bar hopping by night, I was after an altogether different experience. Instead, I arranged several farm exchanges where I would work certain hours in return for food and board. By chance, I met the station managers of Walter Peak Station and volunteered to help out for two weeks; so here I am on a mountain pass on a frigid Monday, waving my arms wildly at gormless cows in a vain attempt to drive them down towards lowland pasture.

A working ranch since the 1860s, Walter Peak Station sits on the western shores of Lake Wakatipu, accessible by boat or country roads from Queenstown. Its namesake stands 1,800 metres tall, a formidable presence alongside Mount Nicholas (1,408 metres) and Cecil Peak (1,978 metres), and much of the station comprises elevated pastoral land, or “high country”. Stretching to more than 240 square kilometres, it runs 800 Angus cattle and 20,000 Headwater and Merino sheep. The stock is overseen by James Clouston, with the help of two full-time shepherds plus seasonal stockmen and shearers, while his wife, Lucy, manages the bookkeeping, farmhouse and tourism operation.