Book excerpt: A new life running a high country sheep station in New Zealand. Christine Fernyhough is well known as a leading Auckland philanthropist, having set up Books in Homes and then the Gifted Kids Programme for high achieving children in low decile schools. In 2003 she was a recent widow when she spied an advertisement for the sale of the legendary Castle Hill Station, near Porters Heights in the Canterbury alps. A woman of energy and enterprise, she bought it and so began a new life learning to run a high country farm at some of the highest elevations in the South Island. This joyful book tells of the trials, tribulations and triumphs of high country life. Christine has thrown herself into station life with gusto, learning to ride so she can join musters in the back country, feeding out to her stock during the disastrous snowstorm of 2006, training a sheep dog, buying stock at the sales and getting on famously with the colourful local characters who are her neighbours, diversifying the station - and proving that she is not a city slicker on a dalliance. Warm and humorous, this inspirational book tells the story of a woman bold enough to do what many urbanites dream of: embark on an entirely new life and throw herself into a considerable challenge. Beautifully illustrated, The Road to Castle Hill is also a celebration of New Zealand's high-country way of life.