Jim Veint - A rural champion

He’s hosted Taylor Swift, Hugh Jackman and Sir Peter Jackson at his place, Sir Ian McKellen called it his favourite place on earth, and Internet billionaire Kim Dotcom was among many famous people wanting to buy it.

Jim Veint’s spectacular Arcadia Station sprawling alongside the Dart River at Paradise, was where he farmed for 70 years, long a lure for visitors – famous or not. That part doesn’t faze this 87-year-old Glenorchy farmer, who only retired from the land he loves two years ago.

Arcadia’s now famous, manor-style homestead, once a stately guest house owned by his parents Lloyd and Muriel Veint, and its stunning environs have starred in 17 films, TV series and countless commercials since the 1950s.

Pop sensation Taylor Swift shot her music video there. Jim was more worried about her safety than the sound. “She was getting sandblasted down on the beach and trees were falling down all around them in the forest. That was a horrendous night,” he says. “There were more than 200 with film crews and those keeping the Paparazzi out. She got floodlit at the Paradise Lodge gate as her vehicle passed through at 2am.”

Jim even made the big screen himself as the ‘Marlboro Man’ on a Marlboro Cigarettes commercial.

All a far cry from his early days on the station as a lad.

Born in 1937, Jim was two when World War II broke out, his dad, trained as a sniper, manpowered to Glenorchy’s scheelite mines.

The eldest of six and only son, Jim spent school terms at his grandparents’ in Melbourne Street after his parents bought Paradise House, near Glenorchy, in 1943. His mum, a Queenstown Buckham, catered for hundreds who did the Paradise bus trip.

From 10 Jim milked six cows alone twice daily.

His grandad had a Ballarat Street butchery, and they owned 11 acres where Veint Crescent is now.

In 1951 his parents bought Arcadia Station.

“Important Dunedin people would bring their families holidaying for up to a month,” he says. “Mum and Dad arranged picnics over to Lake Sylvan, or the Routeburn. Dad ferried guests across the river on horseback.

“Nobody had a lot of money, but everybody got on and helped each other.”

Praised for his honesty after a childhood misdemeanor with a rifle, Jim was called up to draw the local raffle at the Garrison Hall by Sergeant Pat Docherty.

He was sent to Timaru Boys for a good education, his parents eventually buying Golden Terrace guest house, where the Copthorne is now, before moving to Arcadia.

“It was a big thing to get home, staying a night with my grandparents then catching the boat.”

Jim started farming with his dad at 16, the lease running 40kms from Paradise through the Dart Valley to Cattle Flat.

At 19 he was one of eight Burnham Compulsory Military Training cadets selected from 1,000 for Officer Corp training after extensive testing.

In July 1959, when Jim was in Australia shearing, the Mount Earnslaw Hotel burnt down. He bought the 1ha site and with help they retained the liquor licence - hard to get back then, and transferred it, building the current Glenorchy Pub.

With a strong interest in cattle, horse and sheep breeding, he developed a Simmental stud, topping NZ’s national sale. “Two of my bulls won ‘Supreme Show Champion’ at the Sydney Royal Easter Show in consecutive years.” In eight years he did more than 3,000 artificial inseminations and some ovum transplants, travelling to Britain and Europe to assess AI bulls and buy Heffers. Jim was a guest of the Scottish and English Milk Marketing Boards and the German and Swiss Beef Breeders Associations.

Married to Barbara in 1960, Jim, Wattie Watson and Pat Gollop founded Glenorchy’s Lakeside Rugby Club, launching the famous Glenorchy Races in 1962. “I brought 10 horses down and Wattie brought them over the river from his side.” It was great fun – Jim and his horse Hagan cleaning up the ‘Walk, Trott, Gallop’ for 17 years straight. “In the old days people from Waikaia brought up a truckload of good horses and won money. These days it’s just a good day out.”

Jim, who had sisters and a daughter, went in to bat for the girls when the other blokes argued female riders shouldn’t be allowed. “Probably in case they beat the boys,” he grins.

He was still a Golden Oldies Rugby legend playing 10 games, aged 50, scoring four out of six tries in his last game in Brisbane. He captained Lakeside for 29 years, president for 11. In that time the races raised thousands for community projects.

Jim’s given away 45 unbroken breeding horses to a Southland handler and is pretty chuffed that local girl Grace Percy took out an NZ ‘Horse of the Year’ showjumping event in Napier on a horse bred from his.

Selling 140 Chianina Hereford-cross heifer calves to an Australian breeder in 1976 – the first bred in Australasia, was a high moment.
“That was one of my greatest achievements,” he says, proudly.