Iris Scott, high country farmer and vet

Iris Scott was one of the first female graduates of Massey University's veterinary science degree, and went on to take over the 100-year-old Rees Valley station at the head of Lake Wakatipu with her husband Graeme.

Together they established high conservation and land guardianship standards.

After her husband died in 1992, Iris Scott was left with three children to raise alone, as well as runing an 18,000 hectare high country station that had been in her husbands family for over 100 years - in addition to keeping her busy rural veterinary practice going.

Iris on The Reef Spur in winter, 1980.

Graeme & Iris in the late 1980s. Photo credit: Scott family.

The Rees River, with the Humboldt Mountains at right. Photo credit: Geraldine O’Sullivan Beere

Daughter Kate and Iris crutching and eye-wigging with blade shears. Photo credit: Geraldine O’Sullivan Beere

Out with the Land Rover near the mouth of Hunter Stream — a Rees tributary flowing out of Mount Aspiring National Park, the Leap Ridge (on Earnslaw Station) is in the background. Photo credit: Geraldine O’Sullivan Beere.

The images in this gallery are used with permission and are subject to copyright conditions.