Hard Country by Robin Robilliard

Hard Country by Robin Robilliard; $39.99; Random House Books; out now

“Managing to survive without bankruptcy, as had our three predecessors on Rocklands, is the real success story” Robby Robilliard.

One thing a fiercely independent young married couple knew for sure when they were planning their farming future together was that they never wanted to work for anyone else. It’s this resilient and pioneering spirit that runs through Robin (Robby) Robilliard’s absorbing new memoir as this marvellous and sprightly octogenarian reflects on her life with husband Garry and their family in the isolated Golden Bay, at the very tip of the South Island, far away from family and friends. When they arrived there in 1957 it was a very different place to the vibrant and richly diverse community there is today.

In Hard Country, Robby begins by bravely asking herself whether she would have chosen the same life, having known just how hard it was actually going to be. “The extraordinary beauty of this Golden Bay region feeds my soul daily” says Robby. “Living in such isolation behind the great Takaka Hill has forced many of us who live here to do things, achieve things that we may never have done in a more conventional area.”

It had been the Robilliard’s dream to have their own farm, and despite the odds, this is where they remain to this day, over 50 character-building years later.

Robby (right) hailed from a Hawke’s Bay agricultural background, training to be a nurse while Garry was expected to work in the family’s Christchurch accountancy firm. Although they both came from comfortable backgrounds, unlike many farms that have been passed down through the generations, nothing was handed to the Robilliards.

One thing a fiercely independent young married couple knew for sure when they were planning their farming future together was that they never wanted to work for anyone else. They set about to find their dream property only to have their hopes quickly dashed when they realised what a pipedream this was. They eventually found a property, described to them as ‘one hell-of-a run-down place’.

It was some of the worst land in New Zealand, a mountainous, rocky, infertile 1500 acres beyond the infamous Takaka Hill — yet it was all they could afford. Their dream had come true, but it wasn’t the life they had envisaged, as Robby reveals. She’s the first to admit that it has been a challenging life ensuring that Rocklands, — their unforgiving property that had seen three previous custodians go bankrupt trying to farm it — wasn’t going to send them to the same fate.

But, even in Robby’s darkest moments in the early years with three children under four, a husband she never saw during daylight hours, living in primitive conditions with no indoor plumbing, and the sheer physical and emotional exhaustion of living hand-to-mouth, day in, day out, she was determined that this was their home where they would raise their family and make a living against so many odds.

Hard Country is Robby’s inspiring and entertaining story of their decades eking out a living at Rocklands, and their encounters along the way with the many and varied Golden Bay characters and the lifeline they’ve provided to the family over the years.

An great story, reminded me in many ways of Mona Anderson's wonderful 1963 book, "A River Rules My Life".