In other letters, she describes her pride and enjoyment at joining and keeping up with nine men, who doubted her abilities, for long hours of walking in untracked, untamed bush with the aim of hunting wild cattle and her joy at setting ablaze the tussock grasslands on their sheep station in spite of the risk to her eyelashes. She describes instigating a bitterly cold late autumn overnight camping trip to the top of their nearest hill, Flagpole, followed the next morning by a serene sunrise over the Canterbury plains. Lady Mary Anne Barker was a strong horse woman and very keen for all sorts of 'adventures'. She describes the regular predations of the Canterbury nor'wester (a type of Fohn wind), including its role in completely blowing away her attempts at establishing a croquet lawn, the devastating effects of snow storm that killed over half of their sheep, and of a great flood that not only flooded Christchurch but demolished her poultry and nearly drowned her husband. Consequently, little was known about, for example, the irregular Canterbury weather patterns that would dominate the lives of Lady Barker and her husband for those three short years. The first four ships of settlers that colonised the Canterbury region had only arrived in 1850. Although these letters are written with great humour and fine story telling, her life was marred by tragedy while in Canterbury through the illness and eventual death of her baby son. The letters were written between 18 and cover the time of her travel with her husband (Frederick Broomie) to New Zealand and life on a colonial sheep-station at their homestead 'Broomielaw', located in the Province of Canterbury, South Island of New Zealand. These letters are described in the Preface as 'the exact account of a lady's experience of the brighter and less practical side of colonisation'. Station Life in New Zealand is a collection of cheerful and interesting letters written by Lady Mary Anne Barker (nee Mary Anne Stewart) that is a New Zealand 'classic'. , listen for free online at the digital library site

With an eye for essential detail and the sure instinct of an artist, she does not waste a single word.Station Life in New Zealand - description and summary of the book. The author's style has a charm and freshness which the passage of a century has dimmed not a whit. The story of three happy years of life together there is told in a series of letters.

In 1865, the author and her second husband, Frederick Broome, reached Christchurch on their way to take up a sheep run, 45miles away in the foothills of the Souther Alps. Glentunnel Museum, Canterbury, New Zealand Name/Titleġ883 ( Facsimile Edition, Wilson & Horton Ltd)

Station life in new zealand lady barker