She stayed overnight in the old shearers' quarters at historic Mesopotamia Station in Canterbury, kept warm in the bitter cold by sleeping in front of the fireplace, and became hooked on New Zealand's back country.
Since then, Steeg has driven more than 120,000km, making more than 100 station visits and meeting and working alongside those who inhabit those remote areas.
Of the tens of thousands of photographs she has taken, more than 300 have been distilled into High Country New Zealand, first published in October last year and now reprinted.
The images are a mixture of the land, rivers, mountains and high country station buildings.
Photographs of cattle, horses, sheep and dogs feature, alongside those of the farming families working the land: mustering, shearing and in the yards.
With an introduction by Philip Temple, the attractive coffee-table style book features some stunning locations, depicted through the seasons, in the heart of the high country.
- Sally Rae is ODT agribusiness reporter.
Win a copy
The ODT has five copies of High Country New Zealand: the Land, the People, the Seasons, by Antonia Steeg and Philip Temple (RRP $99.99), to give away courtesy of Te Papa Press. For your chance to win a copy, email helen.speirs@odt.co.nz with your name and postal address in the body of the email, and ''High Country Book Competition'' in the subject line, by 5pm on Tuesday, December 3.
