We are Leonie and Neville Walker and our journey into the amazing world of alpacas began in July 2007 with the purchase of 2 females with cria at foot, followed by a few more, until we now farm over 1000 alpacas. Located in the Ruapehu Region we are nestled in the hills of the King Country on the adventure highway 16kms north of Taumarunui where we farm these beauties together with our sheep and cattle. Fibre and genetics have always been an interest for us both, having had a sheep stud for several years and also working with stud cattle.
Nevalea Alpacas began offering visitors ‘The Ultimate Alpaca Experience’ in 2011 and now have a range of different experiences to choose from to give visitors an opportunity to get up close to the alpacas, hand feed them and feel just how soft and cuddly the alpacas are. Fantastic up close and personal experiences with chances for some amazing photos, our experienced guides have expertise in everything alpaca and will inspire visitors to learn more about these amazing creatures.
Nevalea Alpacas is committed to ongoing environmental sustainability. We seek to continually improve our systems and processes to minimise our impact on the environment, by reducing, reusing & recycling. Owners Leonie & Neville Walker decided to farm alpacas because alpacas emit low emission compared to many other farm animals. Alpacas also have a foot pad under their foot, which makes them very gentle on our land and they do not damage our pasture.
We have 150 hectares of native bush on our 351 hectare property, which is home to many native wildlife including kiwis and we are always continually planting more native plants, which not only produces our lovely clean air, but provides shelter and shade for our alpacas.
Our alpacas are shorn once a year and for us this starts from October, ensuring that the alpacas do not overheat when we reach our hot summertime heat. Neville shears all our alpacas, by himself, he has the task mastered to a one man operation and also shears about 200 other alpacas off farm and to date shears all our sheep on the farm. We aim to get the fibre off the alpacas and into a usable product before the next shearing time. This stage is exciting and rewarding, following the fibre grown by our baby alpacas and premium fine fibre from the herd through the cycle until made into our beautiful garments.
The alpacas will grow more wool and by autumn will be nice and fluffy heading into winter with lots of wool on to keep warm, alpaca wool is a great renewable product, and it is their wool that we sell in our onsite Farm Shop.
Our clothing is also made onsite from our alpacas wool using vintage knitting machines that do not require any electricity to run, just good old fashion manual work. Visitors have the opportunity to meet our knitwear designers and see them working when they are browsing in the Farm Shop, being able to produce our knitwear onsite helps us to maintain a very low carbon footprint, along with keeping our supply chain simple and transparent. We produce designer garments for women, men, children and babies, and have a large range of accessories and homeware.
Our environment is important to us and the animals we share our world with. The team at Nevalea Alpacas, love and care for animals, the environment and each other. Nevalea Alpacas is a fun and exciting place, full of helpful, creative and energetic people, and we all love sharing our passion with our visitors.
Proudly 100% New Zealand grown and made.
