Gerard Muir has an unusual lifestyle. He manages a cheese plant in a small town which produces 3.5 billion slices of cheese a year, enough to wrap around the planet six times - a town with one of New Zealand's highest GDP per capita counts: Eltham, Taranaki .
He also milks the cows that provide the milk that makes the cheese.
This split-personality lifestyle is ruled by his alarm clock. To ensure he kicks off on time each day (he likes to be at work by 5am during the week and at the cowshed by 4.30am every second weekend and on public holidays), he sets three alarms - 4.07am, 4.13am, and 4.24am: "One of those generally gets me out of bed," he says.
"I like to be in early so I can get some work done before the meetings start for the day. When I am milking on the farm, I have to be at the shed at 4.30am so I use the same alarms."
Muir is the site manager of Fonterra's Speciality cheese plant in Bridge St, which for 65 years has made blue mould and yellow cheeses for brands such as Mainland, Galaxy and Ferndale. The Bridge St address is important as it's not to be confused with the Fonterra cheese plant in Collingwood St, Eltham - which produces over 70,000 tonnes of cheese for over 50 countries round the world and multi-national customers like McDonald's, Burger King and Subway.
So you're probably starting to get the picture as to why Eltham (population 2000 as at the 2013 census) is one of the capitals of per capita count when it comes to New Zealand's GDP. These two huge cheese operations have helped boost the productivity of Taranaki - and Eltham has a per capita GDP of $89,644.
Watch the TVNZ breakfast show talking to some of the early risers in the Stratford community over breakfast.
Taranaki's per capita GDP is $80,297, easily the country's best, according to 2015 statistics from Statistics New Zealand - so Eltham clearly boosts the provincial GDP. The national average is $51,319; Wellington is second highest but is a long way behind Taranaki - at $62,021. Southland is third with $57,135. Auckland? With its bigger population, it has a per capita GDP of $53,759, 66 per cent less per head than Eltham's.
But how did Muir end up at both the beginning and the begetting of a large slice of New Zealand's cheese output? Why does he milk the cows as well as help make the cheese?
"Oh, look, it keeps me sane," he says. "It's therapeutic - and they dry the cows off for eight weeks a year so it's not as bad as it sounds.
"It's actually a rent deal - I milk the cows to pay my rent. I live on the farm but I don't own it, but I love the milking and the lifestyle. I used to be a farmer in Opunake years ago and I liked the idea of doing this.
"I was in Australia for 28 years and, when I came back here, I was disappointed, when looking for a house to buy, to see what you got for what you paid. You can't go on looking forever - so I decided this arrangement would be good...and it is."
Talk about living Fonterra's 'from the pasture to the plate' motto. So what took him to Australia for 28 years? "A female, mate."
Bridge St focuses on specialised cheeses - blues and "yellow" cheese such as havarti and gouda and fresh cheeses like feta and ricotta. It is part of a $150m speciality cheese industry in New Zealand.
Most of the output from Bridge St is consumed nationally - and the biggest spike in the year has just passed, Christmas and New Year. Muir and a lot of his staff are at the plant early - they operate a 12-hour day seven days a week just to keep up with demand.
However, it's Collingwood St that produces the really gobsmacking numbers with its production of processed and natural cheeses. Those 3.5 billion slices of cheese are enough for 3.5 billion cheeseburgers a year; customers like McDonalds keep coming back for more because of the cheese quality and the plant's ability to package the cheese so it peels quickly, helping the put the 'fast' in fast foods. More than 80 per cent of Collingwood St's output is exported.
Muir has worked in both places - he was a plant manager in Collingwood St for some time - and it is all a long stretch from 1884, when a local Chinese businessman by the name of Chew Chong invented the concept of exporting butter to England. He built the country's first dairy factory in Eltham in 1887.
Bridge St, in 1907, was also the proud site of the country's first tar-sealed road - now a route Muir takes most days and a road to riches for little Eltham.