21 November 2025

Where They Want to Be

Oranga Ahuwhenua. Farm Life.

writer: ANNA BRANKIN (KĀI TAHU, KĀTI MĀMOE)

photographer: MICHELLE PORTER

Kali Rangiawha (Tainui) is not afraid of hard work. From contract milking on her own – with a baby in tow – to juggling farming and parenting with her partner, Will Hinton, her goal now is one of balance, and building the best possible life for her whānau.

When Kali, 30, and Will, 31, made the move from the Manawatū to Fairlie in June, they were chasing more than just scale. The shift from contract milking 350 cows to sharemilking a 1,400-cow once-a-day operation was big – but the real goal was a better way of life for their children, Rylan, 7, Billy, 4, and Blake, 2. The decision to relocate came after years of juggling parenting and farming, with not enough time in the day for either. “All three of my kids have been born into farming – they don’t know anything different, and I love that fact,” Kali says. “But I was working such long days and feeling like I couldn’t keep up with everything. We wanted a setup that let us spend more time as a family, and still achieve our farming goals.”

Leaving agriculture was out of the question – Kali started farming when she was sixteen and has never looked back. “I moved to Australia with the intention of going to university and becoming a paramedic, but I picked up a relief milking job and very quickly ended up quitting my studies to go full time, because that’s how much I loved it,”

Kali was still in Tokoroa when she met Will, a sheep shearer from the United Kingdom. “He had two weeks left on his visa and basically said, ‘Come back with me.’ And I did,” Kali says. They spent six months there, with Kali picking up some relief milking and casual farm work. By the time they returned to New Zealand, Kali was pregnant with Rylan, their first child. She kept her hand in with calf-rearing and relief milking, but after eighteen months she was ready to go back to work full time. She had the experience to step up into a second-in-charge role – what she didn’t have was a job offer. “No one wanted to take a chance on a young mum with a baby,” Kali says. “I knew I could run a farm, but people worry about things like sick days and daycare with young kids. It was hard.”

Above. Kali has gotten back into horse riding over the past six months, after making the difficult decision to give it up when Billy was born. “It became a bit hard to find time for it between looking after two kids and farming,” she says. “I’m absolutely loving being back into it, and I couldn’t be in a better place for it. It’s amazing to have the time to enjoy something that’s just for me, without feeling like I’m sacrificing anything else.”

That’s when Will suggested contract milking. “I said, ‘Absolutely not,’” Kali laughs. “I knew I could run the farm, but I also knew I could not do the books. But Will was born with that sort of brain, so he said he’d do that side of things, if I ran the day-to-day. And that’s how we started.” Kali landed a small contract milking job on the outskirts of Te Awamutu. “It was only about 160 cows, well within my comfort zone at the time. The farm owner didn’t have any issues with me being a young mum. He gave us a shot – and we smashed their milk production record in the first season.”

Most importantly, the role gave Kali the freedom to figure out how to do things her way, with Rylan in tow. Her mum jigged up a platform bed in the back of the RAV4, with space underneath for Kali to store her farming gear. “I’d wake up at five o’clock in the morning, put Rylan into the RAV4 bed with the heater on and go get the cows in, and he’d usually stay asleep till after milking. It just became normal for him,” Kali says. “And once he was awake, you know, give him snacks. Snacks fix everything. And that’s just how I got around.” It wasn’t always easy, and Kali says that she was always second-guessing whether she was doing the right thing. “You want to be doing everything right for your kids, and it’s always a juggle between what’s best for them right now, versus the future you’re trying to build for your family. But overall I don’t think it’s been a bad thing for our kids to grow up the way that they have.”

Continue reading the full story in our Kōanga Spring 2025 Edition.

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