It may be small but there is a lot going on in the Strath Taieri town of Sutton as Bruce Munro finds out.
The heart of Sutton arrived by text. Ten minutes previous, Sutton resident Melinda Leslie had said she was not best placed to identify the small Dunedin hinterland community's living core.
She had not been there long enough, only four or five years, she protested down the telephone line. But sometimes an outsider can most easily see the wood for the trees.
''Mel from Sutton here,'' declared a surprise cellphone text message a few minutes later.
''I think the heart is Kieran's yard. Trucks in and out, highway guy calls in, Yvonne feeds everyone, kids driving trucks and loader, Kieran always doing local jobs or lending a hand. There!''
Sutton, for the unfamiliar, is best described as the farm land on all sides where the railway line crosses State Highway 87 about 7km south of Middlemarch.
In fact, that bit of highway is still officially named Kent St, a throwback to Sutton's heyday more than a century ago when this was a bustling village with its own post office and school.
Originally named Blair Taieri, the area was renamed after runholder John Sutton who arrived in 1854.
Today, Sutton is too easy to miss. Which is a shame, because it is a settlement of distinction and, yes, heart.
Mr McAtamney is busy in the yard of his haulage company, Kieran's Transport, a sprawling collection of sheds housing trucks, trailers, and assorted chunks of trucking equipment. He has lived in Sutton his whole life ''other than four years in boarding school at Oamaru''.
''Back then it was quite different,'' he says.
''It was all family farms. Now farming is a lot more intensive.''
And back then these large sheds were home to Sutton Crates, the largest manufacturer of truck-and-trailer stock crates in the South Island.
The business, which once had 16 employees, closed down 14 years ago.
Mr McAtamney took over the site. And he and his wife Yvonne raised a family in the house just across the road from the yard.
They have four children. The youngest, 11 years old, is at Middlemarch School. The oldest, 20, is studying nursing in Dunedin.
''It's a good place for kids. They can pretty much do what they want when they get home from school,'' he says.
''They are always outdoors doing things. The 11-year-old, if he's not driving the loader for me, will be off shooting rabbits. They're never inside watching TV.''
In Sutton, everything seems to be located relative to the McAtamney's, spokes radiating out from the hub.
Immediately to the northwest is Otago Youth Adventure Trust's Camp Sutton.
Occupying the former school site, the camp has three bunkrooms, a hall and a kitchen.
Its warden is texter Ms Leslie.
''We get all sorts of groups using the camp. Girl Guides, university staff on retreats, Scouts, cultural clubs ... '' she says.
''My job is to take the bookings and keep the camp site in order.''
Ms Leslie is originally from Western Australia. Five years ago, she and husband Sean shifted to a farm a few kilometres northeast of Kieran's Transport.
''We felt like it was time for a change.''
She admits to being ''not that excited by the weather'' in Sutton, but loves the people.
''I've never met such an excellent group of ladies, all doing interesting things.''
Also extolling the virtues of Sutton and its residents is Joyce Mullen, life member of Orchard Sun Club.
Mrs Mullen has been visiting Sutton ever since the naturist club bought property here 25 years ago.
Within an hour's drive of Dunedin, and with a stable Central Otago-like climate, it is an ideal location for the group, she says.
Inside a pine tree perimeter is an undulating, 3ha property punctuated by large slabs of schist. Dotted around the grounds are a five-bedroom house, petanque piste, half-sized tennis court and nine-hole golf course for the use of the club's 30 members and invited guests.
''It's relaxing and levelling,'' Mrs Mullen explains.
''When you take your clothes off, you seem to take your cares off as well.''
The grounds are southeast of the McAtamneys.
''Kieran is very good,'' Mrs Mullen says.
''He keeps an eye on the property for us.''
And other locals, despite some concerns in the early days, are ''not worried'' by the presence of nudists.
''In fact, a number come and visit if we have an open day.''
If the McAtamneys is the hub of Sutton's wheel, Matarae Stud is the tyre from the southeast to the northwest. This large merino farm is owned by Ron and Juliet Jones in partnership with their son William.
During World War I parts of the farm were used as an army camp for Otago's trainee soldiers.
Mr Jones sen bought the land in 1969. He and Mrs Jones married four years later.
''I was a townie, from Dunedin,'' Mrs Jones said.
''I have enjoyed it here. It is unique country and interesting to farm.''
And it has been ideal for developing what has become a top merino stud.
''It can be dry and the winters can be cold, but ... merinos are grazers, they like to have extensive country to roam. The land at Sutton suits them very well.''
The superfine wool clip which the Matarae merinos produce is much sought after by discerning Italian spinners who create cloth for the elite women's fashion industry.
The Jones' farm includes a block that runs to a corner of the Sutton salt lake. New Zealand's only inland saline lake is found east of the McAtamneys, about 2km down Kidds Rd, followed by a 15-minute cross-country stroll.
The lake, the water of which is about one third as salty as the ocean, is formed by rainwater filling a shallow, 8ha basin in the schist landscape. It has no natural outlet, but largely disappears each summer due to evaporation.
The salts in the lake come almost entirely from the sea 50km away - marine aerosols forced into the air by waves and transported in the rain and concentrated over millennia by 20,000 cycles of evaporation and filling.
The Department of Conservation administers the lake reserve and has created a 3.5km loop track which it takes about 40 minutes to walk.
Rare native lizards, birds and other wildlife are getting the upper hand on Robin Thomas' Sutton property.
The recently retired Department of Conservation area manager has a cottage nestled among 20ha of rock and grasslands a couple of kilometres south of the McAtamneys.
Off the grid, relying largely on solar power for his energy needs, Mr Thomas is spending an increasing amount of time in this ''stunning landscape''.
''It is very beautiful and a total change from the coastal environment,'' Mr Thomas says.
''The night sky here is amazing. It's on a par with Tekapo for the clarity.''
He bought the property about seven years ago, just a few days after spotting a species of skink there which had not been seen in the area for several decades.
An ongoing predator trapping programme has removed on average about 160 feral cats, ferrets, stoats and weasels each year.
''It's resulted in a dramatic and pleasing increase in native fauna here,'' he said.
In the opposite direction, east of Kieran's Transport, is another water-related marvel, this one man-made. In the late 1800s, improvements were being made to the road linking Strath Taieri with the lowland Taieri Plain.
Bridges needed to be built to get people and products across various waterways.
At Sutton, a Mr Bain was paid 2724 to build a schist block and wire-rope suspension bridge across the Taieri River.
One hundred and twenty-eight years later, a five-minute drive off the main highway down Sutton-Mount Ross Rd enables today's motorists and cyclists to traverse and admire that same bridge.
Back at his yard, Mr McAtamney is tidying up after another day on the road. The Sutton area is ''full of good people'', he says.
''We've got some really good customers here ... Your business is only as strong as your customers.''
And the young people are cut from the same cloth.
''We're lucky. We've got a whole bunch of 16- to 20-year-old young men and women coming through who are good, capable people.''
It bodes well for Sutton's future.
Getting there
• From Dunedin, it is 73km to Sutton. Take State Highway 87 from Outram.
• From Alexandra, it is 140km to Sutton. Take State Highway 85. About 15km east of Ranfurly, turn right on to SH87.
• You have arrived in Sutton when you reach the railway line which crosses SH87, about 7km south of Middlemarch.
