Totara Estate

Hop in the car with me and let's go for an adventure. Through the town and over the hills around the bend in the road where the organic fruit and veggie market are and here we are.

Totara Estate.
The stone buildings greet us, their soft shade of ecru making this farm seem clean and somehow outside of time. The old machines stand silent waiting to be used again to gather in hay, or round up sheep or haul meat to the ships waiting in the harbor, a scant day long drive by buggy.

As the first farm to export frozen sheep meat to Europe, Totara Estate launched New Zealand into fortune and fame by supplying much of the western world in the 1800's with food while famine and disease were plaguing Europe.
Today Totara Estate is a museum, standing as a reminder of the days before cargo was sent by plane, before freezing food had been perfected and before 5 billion dollars of worth sheep were sent off to be someones dinner every year.