Matangi Station will be actively marketed on the wider real estate market before Christmas, after some hold ups with the terms of the lease.

PGG Wrightson Real Estate has been advertising the high country station for sale for the past month and a half, and the original deadline treaty was for December 7.

But, rural and lifestyle sales consultant Brent Irvine said some aspects needed to be sorted out with both Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) and the Department of Conservation (DOC), before it went live on other real estate sites.

“There is certainly some interest, but it’s not on realestate.co.nz yet or Trade Me because the key to these properties is having your ducks in a row before you start.”

This was the first time in just over a century that the station had been put up for sale by the Sanders family.

Brent said the deadline treaty had been pushed out to February, and even after that it would take some time before the property was in new hands.

“It’s a leasehold property so it has to be signed off by the Crown Commissioner,” he said.

There has been concern in the local community about how the sale would affect the Matangi MTB  park, but Brent said it would be at least another 12 months before anything “realistically” happened.

Situated behind Alexandra’s clock on the hill, stretching through to Little Valley and back towards Roxburgh, Matangi was originally part of Galloway Station, one of Central Otago’s pioneer runs, which was first established by Scottish brothers Watson and Alexander Shennan in 1858, and divided up in 1916.

John Sanders’ grandfather acquired the Crown pastoral lease for the 11,400 hectare station in September 1923 - mainly focused on growing fine wool from a flock that traces back to the original Central Otago merinos of 160 years ago.

Jack Sanders established the Matangi stud in 1940 when he bought half the stock from the dispersal of the Puketoi stud, first registered by pioneer Watson Shennan.

Some of the stud’s original sheep came from the King of Prussia’s Saxony stud in 1862. 

Matangi wool ends up in fabric used by big names in the fashion world such as Hugo Boss, Ermenegildo Zegna, Armani, Ralph Lauren and Gucci.