“Growing up on Ware Ware, day-to-day life was helping my parents out on the farm, whether in the yards or the wool shed,” Fiona recalls. “Out mustering on horseback with Dad when four-wheelers weren’t about yet was always a favourite.”
After finishing school, her parents encouraged her to get a trade and experience life working for others. So she left small-town, rural life behind to study fashion and design in Wellington.
For three years, Fiona sewed for former designer brand A Modo Mio, honing her craft, before moving to London, and travelling through Europe and the Middle East for a few years.
After returning to New Zealand, Fiona started working in interior textiles. She loved her creative career, but something was always missing.
“Being in the city, I felt quite lonely, but being out in the country, I don’t feel lonely at all,” she reflects. “There’s always something to do outdoors – you have your animals around you and no day is the same.”
In 2012, as her parents retired, Fiona decided it was finally time to take over.
Dan and Barbara on the farm. Photo / NZ Woman’s Weekly
“There were no parting words of wisdom from my parents – they just believed that I could do it,” smiles Fiona. “There’s no looking back, you just have to be resilient, look at what needs to be done and get on with it. That’s how I was brought up.”
That resilience has been tested time and again, especially as extreme weather events in recent years hit the coastal farm hard.
“Cyclone Gabrielle was the worst flooding I’ve ever experienced and it did take a toll on me,” admits Fiona of the 2023 event. “The driveway was cut off for a few weeks, but the road took eight months to be reopened.”
Fiona’s also seeing a significant shift in the landscape around her. Where once there were thriving farms and a strong sense of community, many families have left, their land now converted to pine forestry.
With it comes more pests and increasing environmental damage when storms send slash – the tree waste after harvesting – and debris through waterways and into fences.
“Being outside with the animals is what keeps me going,” says Fiona, who is featured in this week’s episode of Hyundai Country Calendar.
A qualified wool classer, Fiona is committed to producing the highest quality wool. On shearing days, she’s the first in the shed, ensuring everything meets her exacting standards. She believes her attention to detail as a woman, from stock presentation to the condition of the yards, helps set her apart.
Fiona is committed to producing the highest quality wool. Photo / Katherine Edmond
“There were people who thought I should be on a lifestyle block or townhouse, which was pretty harsh, but now I’m getting wool awards and getting recognised,” shares Fiona. “I’ve learned to have more confidence, to believe in myself and not to listen to naysayers or the voices that doubt you.”
The exceptional standard of her lamb wool even caught the attention of Auckland-based textile marketing company Maxwell Rodgers, which now uses Fiona’s fleeces to create blankets for Viking cruise ships.
“I think it’s pretty amazing and special that our wool is travelling around the world,” she smiles proudly.
In her rare free time, Fiona creates custom cushions to sell at local fairs and has also transformed the old shearers’ quarters into the Coast Road Backpackers. Life now is a long way from London, but Fiona has no doubt she made the right decision to come home.
In fact, so strong is her devotion to the land that she jokes, the only way she’s leaving is in a wool coffin.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she insists. “My dream is just to keep going and for the farm to be an ongoing legacy for my family.”
Hyundai Country Calendar, screens Sundays at 7pm on TVNZ 1 and TVNZ+.