OBITUARY:
Colin James Drummond
Died: December 11, 2024, aged 66.

Born in Motueka, Tasman District.Legacy: He will be remembered for his love of Clydesdale horses, promotion of traditional farming, and community.

Erewhon Station’s Colin Drummond will be remembered as a “genuine high country legend.”

Drummond, known by most as “Major”, passed away on December 11 after a brief but brutal illness.

Wife Erin Cassie said it would be hard to fill his shoes on the farm, managing sheep, cattle and Clydesdale horses on the high country property.

“He always used to say, ‘no one is indispensable’.

“But it felt like he was an example of someone who was indispensable.”

Drummond was born to a Motueka-based dairy farming couple on March 31, 1958.

But dairying was not for him, and from a young age he’d been interested in horses and mustering.

At 16 years old, Drummond left Motueka to begin his high country journey, travelling both the North and South Islands for mustering.

He worked on farms near Fairlie, in Malborough, Cromwell, Alexandra, Wanaka and Taihape during his early life.

He married his first wife, Christine Hill, and they had a son, Jamie, and daughter, Kelly, together.

Hill founded the dog food business, Mighty Mix, after the pair were in a devastating snow storm on a Marlborough farm in 1992.

They moved to Blenheim to boost the business, where Drummond bred his first Clydesdale horses.

Over his lifetime, Drummond bred over 130 purebred Clydesdales, and a number of  partbreds.

In 1998, he secured the Crown pastoral lease of Erewhon Station, around 35,000 acres of land, where he spent the rest of his life.

After parting with Hill, he later met Erin Cassie on a horse trek.

“On a wagon trek with the Canterbury Clydesdale club is where we first crossed paths.”

She took up the mantle and has been his co-conductor on Erewhon Station since then - though she said he ran the show.

“It’s a pretty hard environment up here on the mountains.

“Living at the end of the road, you’ve got to be a jack of all, master of none… though I’d say he was pretty much a master of everything.”

Cassie and Drummond had been together for 14 years, though “it felt like 40 in some regards,” she said.

“To me, he was just my one-in-a-million, mountain of a man.”

Drummond had been the Federated Farmers Mid Canterbury high country representative for five years.

High Country chairperson said Drummond was a man “committed” to the farmers he served.

Drummond had kept a keen eye on water quality and nitrate regulations made by regional and national governments.

An example of his loyalty is the Ashburton Lakes field day he organised earlier this year, where he shared sample results of water quality across Mid Canterbury.

He worked hard to show farmers were putting in the mahi, and liked practical things - Anderson said he “didn’t like shortcuts, and believed in getting a job done right first time”.

“He was pretty traditional; didn’t own a cellphone, didn’t like meetings by Zoom.

“But he was committed to Federated Farmers and would travel for hours to go to a meeting.”

Mt Somers Farmer Nick France echoed that sentiment.

“He was ‘old school’, but in a good way.

“Once he warmed to you, he was great company.”

France called him a “generous, fun guy” who loved and cared for all his animals.

“[He] had so much mana in the High Country community.”

France, who runs a Hereford stud farm down the gorge from Erewhon, said Drummond loved the bulls.

“He just loved the attributes of the breed.”

In the little spare time Drummond had, he was out in the community.

He had been president of the Mayfield Collie Club in the past, and had been involved in setting up trial courses for the dogs.

He had also been the vice president of the New Zealand Clydesdale society, and past president of the Canterbury Clydesdale club, organising training days and the annual week-long wagon trek events.

“It’s a real loss,” France said.

Cassie said Drummond was a horse-lover through and through, and that plus his traditional approach to life had compelled him to implement horsepower in the farm.

He used horses to cross the rivers, saying they were reliable and could assess risk well when crossing in higher flows.

“They have a sixth sense,” he said in an interview for Ruralco earlier this year.

“If you nose them up to a swollen river and give them time, they will pick up and choose where to enter the water, they will sort out the firmer footing, and steer around big boulders and deep holes.”

He also took them to plough fields and would feed the horse with their days’ work.

“The horses are making their own feed, and they go through a fair bit so we wouldn’t want to be buying it all in.

“The more you use horses the better they get, unlike machinery where the more you use them the more they cost you!”

Cassie said Drummond lived life at a “pretty fast pace.”

“His nickname was ‘Major’ because his fearless leadership was a lot like an army major at times.

“We always had a plan A, B and C. It didn’t matter what it was, the job would be done.

She said the turnout to his funeral, where he was buried on the station, was about 400 people strong.

“The weather was perfect, he got buried up on the hill. I took him there with the wagon team.

“For a terrible situation, it was pretty amazing, and we had a really great celebration.”

He’s been buried looking out over Erewhon - over the mountains and the river.

It's safe to say he’ll be there, watching over the generations of high country farmers to come.

Colin Drummond will be missed by his children, grandchildren, wife and the wider high country community.