The Fathers of Papanui Estate

September 02, 2024

With Father's Day coming in hot on the first of September (here’s your helpful reminder), it makes a lot of sense to give a big shout out to all the dads who have helped get Papanui Estate to where it is today, and better still, lay the foundations for Honest Wolf.

So on this lazy Sunday evening, why not chuck on the kettle and let us take you back through three generations of farming dads.

Firstly, my name is Sophie Hurley, and along with my husband Sam, we run the cutter at Honest Wolf. Lovely to meet ya. While you may know us for our luggage and accessories, this part of the adventure only began in 2018.

For the last 80 odd year’s, Sam, his dad, Andy, and his grandad, Ray, have been guardians to the 3,300 hectares of Papanui Estate. Nestled in the centre of New Zealand's North Island, the rolling hills are home to an abundance of cattle and sheep.

Sam’s grandad, Ray Hurley, took the reins back in the early 1950s. With a flock of ewes well into the five digits, and with wool in high demand, he managed to pay off the entire property with the white fluffy gold.

At the age of 21, Andy, Sam’s dad, took over operations. However, with a growing desire for all things dairy, the day-to-day changed a bit on the farm. While we tend to a flock of 25,000 ewes today, when Andy took hold, it was about droving cattle.

Long before you could order a truck online, “droving cattle” was literally a step-by-step process. Over the years, Andy and his team became well known for their expertise in droving big herds all over the north island.

A typical journey from Papanui to Gisborne would take three months to complete. Andy and his drovers would move mobs of 600 cattle around 10-15kms per day, staying in caravans on council holding paddocks along the way.

While business was good, as the years went on, wool started to make it’s thunderous return. Enough so, that by the time Sam started working on the estate, the woolly side of the business continued to take centre stage.

From an early age Sam started following his old man around the farm. And while school and a social life were ever present, it wasn’t long before he realised he wanted to be the one who kept Papanui estate thriving for the next generation.

In 2017, Sam took on the task of loving the land. Once we decided to call Papanui home, we set out to see what bio-degradable mark we could leave on the estate.

With wool prices in a steep decline at the time, we wanted to find a venture that would help breath new life into our beloved absolute wonder-fibre. But whatever it was, it had to check off three very important criteria.

Firstly, we wanted to utilise our resources on hand. Secondly, it was important to be sustainable for the long haul. And lastly, it needed to help push the farm towards the future.

Enter, Honest wolf.

What started out as a passion project slowly snowballed into a thriving family business. At the beginning, Sam focused on keeping the livestock happy and healthy, while I put my time into growing Honest Wolf. However, today, Sam has learnt the fine art of juggling farming duties and retail operations. He’s even started to lobby for better farmgate wool prices for all Kiwi farms.

Over the years, we’ve hit a few good milestones. We opened our flagship store in Hunterville, as well as pop up shops around the country. We’re now stocked in retailers nationwide, and we have customers all over the globe. We successfully raised over $100,000 for those affected by the floods in Gisborne. And more recently, we were able to partner with the New Zealand Team as they took on the world at the Paris 2024 Olympic games. None of which, would have been possible without the fathers of Papanui Estate.

So in the spirt of Father’s Day, I just want to say a massive thank you to Sam, Andy and Ray for all the work they’ve put in to make Honest Wolf what it is today. A real bloodline of legends in my eyes, and in our children's as well.