More than 250 people whiled away a sunny day at Totara Estate on Saturday for National Lamb Day 2025.
Visitors from across Otago sampled local food — including lamb — watched demonstrations such as blade shearing and participated in old-fashioned games as they soaked up the history of the estate’s restored farm buildings, which are a reminder of the transformation which moved New Zealand to a primary export economy in the 1880s.
The date for the annual event was brought forward to February 15 at Totara this year for the first time — the date in 1882 the first shipment of freshly slaughtered meat dispatched from the Totara site was loaded at Port Chalmers for the voyage that founded a viable frozen meat trade to Britain.
Previously, the annual celebration had always been held on May 24 to coincide with the date in 1882 when the first shipment of meat from Totara was successfully landed in Britain, Heritage NZ Totara Estate property lead Jacqui Allison said.
After a fuggy start on Saturday the turnout had been fabulous, she said.
Ms Allison said the HNZ-owned site, which preserves the beginnings of this country’s export sheepmeat trade, was "a hidden gem" in the Otago landscape and people visiting the site were invariably surprised and tended to linger because of its ambience.
"When visitors come for a tour during the week, they do the tour and then hang out."
HNZ southern region manager heritage assets Jess Armstrong said she was "pleasantly surprised" at the day.
"When you do a first-time event, you never know but I was thrilled.
"The people who came really enjoyed themselves and we had a lot of people who were local too who had never been before."
