High Street to Homestead

From her Grey Lynn apartment to one of New Zealand’s most historic homesteads and horse studs, this is an inspirational journey from a corporate life working with Louis Vuitton back to the golden hills of rural Wairarapa.


It’s the middle of the night and Angela lies awake asking herself, not for the first time, why she gave up her glamorous job in the city, immersed in a world of luxury designer labels, high fashion and cocktail parties. In High Street to Homestead Angela musters the courage to change direction, giving up her home in the city to re-discover what’s most important in life.


It’s been said before that one can’t look to the future without looking at the past – but in some cases heritage can be a heavy burden, and digging up memories, a painful experience. Angela Williams’ great-great-great-grandfather is Henry Williams, famous for translating the Treaty of Waitangi into Maori. Her great-great- grandfather helped establish one of New Zealand’s largest sheep stations. While her great grandmother was a national champion golfer, Angela’s grandmother founded the famous Te Parae thoroughbred stud. And her mother was Miss New Zealand… But her family has also had its fair share of pain and hardship, something Angela knows about first-hand.


With three children – Angela and her two older brothers – the Williams family of Te Parae face issues of succession many farming families will be familiar with. With the days of the vast sheep stations largely a thing of the past, and with so many rural homesteads being sold out of family ownership, there’s also the challenge of preserving an historic homestead for the next generation.


Join Angela as talks herself down from the high branches of self-doubt, as she settles in to life in a glorious homestead, plans for its future, and grapples with one of her biggest rural addictions – horses.