Queen’s Birthday weekend 1999. That’s when we first saw the piece of land where we now live. Rather, it was the view of the South Wairarapa at our feet, the snow-covered Tararuas and Kaikouras in the distance that blew us away. The totally undeveloped hilly farmland behind us was a bit daunting - but THAT VIEW!!

Like many people who live here now, we’d been weekending in Martinborough regularly for several years and the time had arrived when we felt ready to make the move. We’d tossed up between Martinborough and Wanaka but Martinborough’s familiarity and its proximity to Wellington (and Richard’s work in IT) won out.

The next 12 months saw us move to Martinborough and get started with planting trees. Our initial idea had been to plant the whole 9 acres but that quickly showed itself to be an unrealistic goal.  We weren’t sure exactly what to do with the land but knew we wanted to build.

Because there were none of the services we’d taken for granted in the city (phone, power, water, sewerage…) whatever we did would need to be energy efficient and affordable. Off we went to the Mystery Creek Fieldays to research alternative power, water tanks and some pretty weird sewerage systems. That’s where we met our first alpacas. Over the two days we were there, something kept pulling us back to them.

A couple of months later we set off on a 10-day skiing trip to the South Island.  To cut a long story short, it wasn’t a good ski season and we ended up skiing 3 days and visiting 10 alpaca farms. When we arrived home and announced that we had bought 3 pregnant females, our friends and family though we’d lost the plot!!

Our house wasn’t ready for another 18 months so we left the animals on the stud in Canterbury where we had bought them. This turned out to be a smart move because by the time they arrived on our property we had learned a lot by making several trips south, helping around the farm and attending a couple of shows.

In the meantime, all three girls had given birth to male cria - whom we’d named Ruamahanga Russian Fudge, Ruamahanga Nougat and Ruamahanga Rolo.  Fudge and Nougat won ribbons at the 2001 Canterbury Show and are now two of our resident studs.  Sheena, Phyllis and Dolly have given us 20 cria to date and many other animals have come and gone over the last 7 years. At any point in time we have around 20 alpacas on the farm.

Alpacas were first brought to New Zealand in the 1840’s but it wasn’t until the late 1980’s that the industry really got going.  Today there are approximately 12,000 alpacas in New Zealand on over 600 farms.  The size of the herds varies - some people have 2 or 3 pets; there are breeding and fleece-producing herds of over 300.  Because they are easy-care, gentle and inquisitive animals, alpacas make great pets or companions. They are easy to halter train and can be led even  by young children.

The fibre is increasing in popularity as more people learn about it.  It’s as fine as merino but its structure is such that it is smoother than wool - you don’t get that ‘prickle’ that some people are allergic to. New Zealand-made alpaca products include fleeces to spin, knitting yarns, felted, woven and knitted baby-wear, clothing of all sorts, hats, slippers, blankets and throws, duvets and pillows.

Alpaca meat is not yet a commercial product in New Zealand - as it is in Australia; but this will change in the next few years as numbers increase.  Incidentally, it’s more like veal than anything else - very low-fat, with a subtle flavour.

If you’d like to learn more about these fascinating animals, have a look at www.paretai-alpacas.co.nz. We are open for visits on Sundays (11am - 3pm) and sell our products at the Martinborough Country Market (open Sundays 10am - 2pm) or from our shop on the farm.