The Overseas Investment Office gave Swedish furniture giant Ikea’s parent company, Ingka Investments, approval to buy the 5500ha station, known as The Wisp, from Southland brothers Leonard and Graham Ward in 2020.
John and his younger brother Trevor sold The Wisp to an equity partnership, which included the Ward family, for $3.1 million in 1993.
Ingka Investments paid $24.3 million for The Wisp, Southern Rural Life understands.
John, 82, said he could understand why the Ward family sold The Wisp for trees but he tried not to think about the decades of work his family had made improving the sheep and beef farm, which were being lost by pine trees being planted. The thought of pine trees being planted could make him emotional.
Rather than thinking about the time spent developing the land being wasted, he focused on the pride he felt from his time on The Wisp, generating jobs, providing red meat for people to eat and wool to keep them warm.
"It can go into trees but you can’t take that away from me and the people that worked there."
He was grateful for the toil of dozens of workers on The Wisp including the many women who kept the "home fires burning" including his younger sister Myrle.
His time on The Wisp was "amazing".
To celebrate his 80th birthday, his son Simon arranged a visit to The Wisp before it was covered in pine trees.
The pair spent six hours on the station reminiscing about their family’s time developing the property.
When John was a boy, his parents, Ian and Margaret, owned sheep farms in the Catlins. His father used to drove, muster and shear around the district including at The Wisp.
"Dad was a stockman through-and-through," he said.
One day his father was in Ōwaka sorting finance to build a new house, when his solicitor asked him if he had any interest in buying The Wisp.
"It was dad’s ultimate dream, he never thought he would have a chance of buying The Wisp," John said.
His parents sold their farms and bought the Wisp in 1950, when John was 8. It was all in its "natural state", running about 3600 ewes and 170 cows.
John left school soon after his 15th birthday to work on The Wisp.
"I know the place like the back of my hand."
Development during his family’s tenure included the cultivation of "thousands of acres" and erecting scores of kilometres of fencing, forming airstrips for topdressing pilots and building a new woolshed.
The family bought the 120ha sheep and beef farm Keith Hall, near Allanton on the Taieri, in 1961 and ran it from The Wisp.
John and his wife Jennifer moved to Keith Hall in 1993, the same time the family sold The Wisp.
The sale included livestock comprising nearly 10,000 ewes, mostly Romney and Cheviot cross, more than 450 cows, mostly Herefords, more than 100 heifers, nearly 380 calves, more than 180 steers and a dozen bulls.
Reasons for selling The Wisp included his poor health at the time and Trevor wanting to move to Australia.
When they sold The Wisp, Simon was 19 and studying at Lincoln University.
Simon said at the time he was intending to return home to farm but wanted a career in another sector first.
John said a fond memory of his time at The Wisp was his then 4-year-old son rattling stones in an empty beer can to help move a mob of 2000 ewes.
Simon now works at ASB Bank as a rural credit assessment manager, covering Otago and Southland.
He will finish at ASB at the end of next month and planned to focus on his farming interests on the Taieri, while he considered the next step in his career.
Simon said The Wisp sale price per hectare was cheaper than some smaller farms being sold for forestry.
Properties, such as The Wisp, could be difficult to sell due to their size, remote location and sale price.
"There isn’t many people around with that sort of coin."
