Wimbledon farmer shares his passion for the exotic

Front, Ron Allan, left from Upper Hutt, talks with Dannevirke's Ray Olsen, at the exotic sheep open day at Brian Hales' Wimbledon farm on Monday.

A trek to Wimbledon on Anniversary Day was a chance for old friends to meet and new friendships to flourish.

Farmer Brian Hales opened his woolshed and yards to share his love of exotic sheep.

Special guest was his new friend Ray Olsen from Dannevirke, who, although having never met Mr Hales, nominated him for Hawke's Bay Person of the Year.

"This has been a wonderful day," Mr Olsen said.

Tracy Pearson of Dannevirke has a quiet word with one of the exotic sheep at Wimbledon.

"Surprisingly all my ancestors on my father's side, who landed in Port Chalmers, made their way to a farm just up the road from Brian's in the 1880s. Three generations of my family lived in Wimbledon, my grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather."

Mr Olsen was Dannevirke's last postmaster and our first registrar of electors.
And Mr Hales also has links with the Olsen family Mr Olsen discovered. In the historic Wimbledon woolshed are relics from Olsen's sawmill from the 1880s.

Doug Hales of Porangahau dishing on the free food for visitors to the open day including casseroles, cold cuts, cheese scones and exotic sheep meat and salad sandwiches from Nola Cafe and Restaurant, Waipawa

Ron Allan and his wife also made the trek from Lower Hutt to Wimbledon.

"All my ancestors were on the land," he said. "We're here because my wife is a spinner and weaver."

Mr Hales loves to share his passion for wool with visitors who were able to admire the exotic flock, check out the wool and take home wool from the five bins in the shed.

"It was a great day with people from around the lower North Island here," Mr Hales said.
One of the exotic breeds on display were the Karakuls. The oldest breed of sheep known to man, they were present at the birth of Jesus.

Wimbledon farmer Brian Hales with his flock of Jacob sheep.

"But they're so hard to farm in our conditions," Mr Hales said. "I sent some Karakul wool to the United States and received $300kg for it. It was made into suits, but I had to go to a lot of trouble to do the deal."

Other deals with the United States have seen Mr Hales receive between $12 and $15kg for Karakul used to make cowboy hats.

And he's sold 41kg of wool from "a great specimen of an Arapawa Island ram", to the United States for $100kg.

"The wool is very fashionable for baby wear as the wool has no itch and is very warm," he said.

Tangi, from Porangahau, knits shawls for the newly born children of Africa, who, when born, are sent home wrapped in newspaper, hence the name Fish and Chip babies.

"Once Tangi heard how well suited the Arapawa wool was to baby wear, she was dying to have a go and quickly gathered a group of supporters to help her. Amazing," Mr Hales said.

The Hales family, Brian's sister Kathryn Willoughby from Hawke's Bay and brother Doug from Porangahau, made sure visitors were well fed and watered. And Waipawa's Nola Cafe moved down on to the farm for the day, with everything offered to visitors free, a gesture of traditional country hospitality from Mr Hales.

* More on Dannevirke News Saturday edition.