The town of Stratford lies beneath the eastern slopes of Mount Taranaki, about halfway between New Plymouth and Hawera. In the district, there are about six dairy cows per resident.
The Egmont ring plain provides fertile volcanic soils which, together with plenty of rain, make for some of the best dairy country in New Zealand.
Among the lush grass is the newly relaid artificial hockey turf at Taranaki Electricity Trust (TET) MultiSports Centre.
Surrounding the turf are salvaged Carisbrook seats.
Dairy farmer Grant Boyde, a Taranaki Synthetic Turf Trust member, said the trust bought 524 ''Taranaki yellow'' plastic seats from Carisbrook.
In October, 280 plastic Carisbrook seats were bolted in a grandstand right ''smack in front of the turf''.
''It is great viewing from the seats. They are getting a lot of use.''
The centre had no seating but needed some to have a chance of winning its bid for the 2013 Oceania Cup - a hockey test series between New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea and Samoa for world ranking points.
The centre was searching for seats when Carisbrook furniture began to be sold.
''They were a great price - a quarter of the price of buying brand new ones. Some of them were faded but the seats themselves were in fantastic condition.''
The seats were part of a $600,000 makeover for the centre, which eventually secured the hosting rights for the week-long tournament in October and November.
The tournament was well supported by spectators.
''On the final day there were 2313 spectators. That's massive for a little town like Stratford - it was outstanding.''
The formerly Otago Gold seats, now Taranaki yellow, could have been seen as Australia gold by the visiting Australian men's team as it continued its Oceania Cup dominance with a 5-2 win over the men's Black Sticks in the hockey final.
Earlier in the day, the women's Black Sticks lost their final 5-4 against Australia in a shoot-out.
In the third-place playoff, Papua New Guinea's men's side beat Samoa 3-0, while the Samoan women beat Papua New Guinea 4-3 in a shoot-out.
The Samoa and Papua New Guinea teams left their mark at the MultiSports Centre.
For $100, a sponsor's name could be written on individual seats, Mr Boyde said.
''It pays for the seat - which is fantastic. The Samoan and Papua New Guinean teams bought seats.''
The rest of the Carisbrook seats the trust had bought would be part of two mobile 120-seat ''community grandstands that could be taken down and go to different events''.
The mobile grandstands would be used across Taranaki and the seats' colourful history would continue, he said.
''They could tell a hell of a lot of stories, those seats, no doubt. They're brilliant, eh. Everybody loves them.''
