Te Kuiti bills itself as the ‘Shearing Capital of the World’ and has a 7.5 tonne sheep shearing statue to prove it. What gives the town more shearing capital kudos is that David Fagan, a multiple World and NZ Champion Shearer, is a local. David’s son Jack followed him into the woolshed, he’s a gun shearer too, so Te Kuiti should hold its title for a while yet.

If you visit the shearing statue you’ll read that the NZ sheep population peaked in 1982 at 70.3 million, try counting to 70.3 million the next time you can’t get to … Read the rest