The views from Philip and Robyn Holt's farm, Maraetara, are spectacular – across the Ahuriri estuary to Hawke Bay and Napier Hill.

They're not the only ones to appreciate it though. When Philip was growing up the only neighbours were other farmers. Now houses dot the hillsides and Maraetara has boundaries with about 70 neighbours.

This growth of lifestyle blocks has negatives and positives, says Philip.

KATE TAYLOR/FAIRFAX NZ The views on Philip Holt's Maraetara farm encompass Hawke Bay.

Well-meaning neighbours let them know when something is wrong, such as stock getting onto the road or car lights in a paddock in the middle of the night. But non-farmers living so close to a farming operation can also mean small headaches with the timing of weaning or spraying - communication is key, says Philip - and big headaches with roaming dogs killing stock.

Philip and Robyn took over Maraetara from Philip's parents Kipper and Esther Holt. They started farming on their own account in 1982, leasing the original family farm of 290ha and buying numerous titles over the years as different neighbouring farms were subdivided.

The expansion of the farm hasn't been planned as much as it has evolved as opportunities have arisen, he says. Maraetara includes 18 titles ranging in size from 1.5ha to 150ha.

They now farm 11,000 stock units on 1133ha (1030ha effective), including a block 35 minutes away at Kaiwaka with their son Philip. They also have adult daughter Catherine and son Alexander living off-farm but retaining an avid interest and with the potential to be involved in the future.

Philip Junior worked on several dairy farms then two years with the Thomsen family at Patoka before returning home. Alexander worked on Maraetara for two years before working for an Otorohanga contractor for a few years then in Western Australia driving harvesters, trucks and now road trains. Teacher Catherine also did her two-year stint on the farm and continues to do the some of the book work for the business while at home with three young children.

"They have all done the hard-labour, low-pay experience," says Philip.

"The plan is to have them all working in the business – it's up to them to make it work in the future. It will be easy if they all work together at first, rather than split the farm into three."

Maraetara has almost 8000 sheep including 4640 scanned in-lamb coopworth breeding ewes and two-tooth ewes. The coopworth genetics come from Central Hawke's Bay breeder Steve Wyn-Harris Marlow stud and Gisborne breeder Brett Teutenberg's Hinenui and include a facial eczema tolerance needed on Maraetara. Philip says he likes the coopworth as a "good, dual-purpose sheep that's right for this country". Maraetara is one of the last farms in the area to keep breeding its own replacements, he says.

"I'm still a passionate woolgrower, too. I still believe there is huge potential for wool and Philip and I are farmers who still dag all their sheep before they're shorn."

A third of the flock goes to a terminal sire – a suffolk texel from Robin Hilson's One Stop Ram Shop.

Ewe lambs leave the farm for a year to grow out – previously they were grazed at a property near Taihape but the Holts are now leasing the 205ha farm. A casual shepherd is employed on the property and Philip visits about once a month.

Maraetara carries 358 angus breeding cows, plus replacements, and 50 cows are also at the Taihape lease block.

"Everything is a total black animal," Philip says, with the cows going mostly to Waiterenui Angus bulls, which are from a similar climate and environment and are quiet and have good temperaments.

Philip says his father used to have angus cattle with a little hereford infusion.

"I went through the exotic phase in the 80s, along with a lot of others, but we had too many issues with temperament, eye cancer and bad feet and they also struggled in our hot, dry summer environment."

It is a low-rainfall, low-natural-water environment with a range of soils. Altitude ranges from sea level to 270m above.

Every opportunity is taken to collect and store water, including a 9 million-litre dam for stock, with 125 gravity-fed troughs and more than 70 ponds and dams – all of which are cleaned out regularly.

However, just over half the flats were under the sea before the 1931 earthquake and can flood at any time of the year.

Lucerne hasn't survived on the flats because of the "wet feet" and plantain is now being considered because of its survival rate under water.

The unexpected flooding was also one of the reasons the Holts stopped running friesian bulls, says Philip Junior

"We did bulls for a while but it took away our flexibility and weren't the best option environmentally. Plus the flats can flood any week of the year and stay flooded for different lengths of time – we couldn't move three mobs of bulls onto the hills and try to keep them away from the cows and from each other."

Safety was another reason.

"There are only two of us. We can't afford to have wild or rough animals because we'd be stuffed if one of us was hurt."

He says they have spent a lot of money on infrastructure so jobs can be done quickly and efficiently with just two people.

Another class of stock on Maraetara is home-bred boer-cross goats, including 320 does.

Philip Junior is quick to say they are his father's responsibility and his father is happy to accept it.

"In this business there are lots of opportunities. We hosted a group from the English Lakes District – one of them was getting paid £25-30 [NZ$56-67] per kilogram for goat meat. They had 40 hectares and a three-month wait on online sales. I see huge potential for our goat meat – a tremendous future if we can get organised."

Goats have been on Maraetara since the 1950s for weed control. "They're supposed to be eating the variegated thistles," Philip says.

Many weeds were introduced by early settlers.

"We have them all," he sighs. The worst is chilean needle grass, which they are managing closely after it was discovered on one of their newest blocks.

Despite the weeds, he says it's not hard to appreciate the wonderful place they live and farm.

"I just love doing what I'm doing and our roots are here, that's the main thing. We all just love living in this area. We want to stay living in this area."

They also love sharing their slice of paradise. Dozens of community groups and organisations are invited to traverse Maraetara's paddocks every year – they range from horse treks and walking groups to preschools, scouts and Year 10 agriculture students from Napier Boys' High School.

"We like to share our environment with people. It is part of our responsibility as landowners," says Philip Junior.

"We need to spread the word about what we're doing and why we're doing it."

Maraetara was one of the case studies in the resource booklet Adaption to Climate Change in Eastern New Zealand by Gavin Kenny.

The farm also hosted many biosecurity researchers during the Australian mosquito infestation a few years ago, along with thousands of the mosquitoes in the wetlands around their border with the Ahuriri Estuary.

"Hawke's Bay doesn't realise how close it came to disaster with those things," says Philip Junior.

"Our whole lifestyle would have been gone. They were vicious. If they'd taken over we would have no cycle ways, no wineries with outdoor eating. It would have been impossible to enjoy being outside."

The Holt family was a finalist in the East Coast Ballance Farm Environment Awards this year and won an award for stewardship, which included the creation of special places.

The farm is home to an historic Ngāti Kahungunu site, Tara's marae, which dates back to the 1350s. A 7ha dry, easterly cliff face overlooking the Ahuriri Estuary is being planted with thousands of native plants with perhaps a small shelter that has already been nicknamed the "room with a view".

Philip says Maraetara has a number of other more private special places.

"Every landowner needs a special place on their farm just to think and enjoy and just have time out from their own farm … I believe in the power of positive thinking and I'm always looking for something positive. We're so lucky. We should be telling ourselves that all the time."

The awards judges noted Maraetara was a "special family operation working for a common goal".

They said the Holts had an intergenerational programme of strategic tree planting resulting in many mature, picturesque stands and they had strong interaction with the Department of Conservation and the Hawke's Bay Regional Council.

Trees have been planted for shade, shelter, fodder, bee food, bird food, wet land restoration and gully retirement. There are two QEII National Trust covenants, one an open space covenant of 184ha put in place by Philip's parents Kipper and Esther. A new covenant is pending for an area on the Kaiwaka block where an under-threat green mistletoe has been found.

There is also 65ha of commercial pine trees.

"With all our infrastructure making everything safer and neater, we've cut off gullies, cliff faces and dirty corners and that's where we've done our environmental planting."

How many trees have been planted on the farm?

"Thousands."