Mangarara (The Family Farm) is a 610 hectare/1500 acre hill country farm in Elsthorpe, Hawke’s Bay. It has been stewarded by the Hart family since 1990. The farm is a diverse mix of lakes, wetlands, peat flats, rolling and steep hills, pasture, native and exotic trees. It’s a great sustainability initiative, with Quest joining Air New Zealand in supporting the Mangarara Family Farm and Eco-Lodge. Our work has involved both video production and website development to help Mangarara achieve it’s long term sustainability goals.

Some of the major Mangarara milestones include:

• A partnership with Air New Zealand in 2008 which led to the planting of 85,000 native trees adjacent to a small remnant of virgin native forest.
• Planting native and exotic trees around farm dams (small lakes) and in shelter belts to protect soils, provide shade & shelter for livestock, sequester carbon and enhance biodiversity.
• Building the Mangarara Eco Lodge (commissioned in 2015) to accommodate, educate and inspire through generous hosting that includes farm tours, workshops & events.
• Moving to Holistic Management and Planned Grazing – a management system designed to maximise ecosystem, animal and human well-being through grazing more mature pastures on longer, planned rotations.
• Partnering with Million Metres Streams and successfully raising over $30,000 to plant the riparian margin of Horseshoe Lake, a 35-hectare lake and wetland that borders the farm and Eco Lodge.