We were successful in mid 2000 to find our 10 acres "Lifestyle Property" close to the city of Christchurch and plans were drawn up pretty smartly to get the house building on the way. We also had pretty good ideas as to what we were going to do and how to set up our retirement plan that was to grow Palm trees, so a tunnel house was also part of the plan. The remaining acres were something else - we had not decided what to do with the rest of the land, but that was soon to change as we talked to a business friend about his Llamas. Well, he was telling us how he doubled his investment(!) by having a female baby Llama born at his property, and what a great investment he had made. We started to look at that prospect of having Llamas on our property and soon we were buying Llamas and started to get the fencing done, for when our Llamas were coming home... they in fact moved in before we did! We are so pleased we did decide to get Llamas as each time we look outside we see these exotic animals in our paddocks and they give us, our family & friends great enjoyment as they are a gentle and very intelligent animal. Many people stop outside our property and come up to the Llamas and the Llamas just love the attention! 
In 2005 we started to look around for a property with more land, so we could increase our herd. We found a property near Oxford with a great view! and the llamas love the hillside property. In New Zealand we have only around 600 Llamas and their popularity continues to grow. And it is easy to see why, because not only are they of the very few and easily managed larger animals you can keep on your lifestyle block, but they have also proven to be more than equal in returning the investment made in them by their owners. By looking back to early 1980 to when llamas first became available for private ownership in New Zealand, they then sold for around $2,000 - $3,000 each. By the mid 1980s with the imports of new blood lines this price had risen to $5,000 to $6,000 each. With the arrival of Chilean Llamas in the late 1980s both the quality and the price of breeding stock rose considerably to around $10,000 each.  Today an adult breeding female has a value ranging from $4,000 to $10,000 each, with a proven stud male worth up to $10,000 - $20,000 each. Young weaned females bring from $4,000 - $7,000 each. The price will rise as the females reach maturity and can be sold pregnant. Young males could be sold as the "pet" package from $1,000 to $3,000 depending on the amount of training to date. Young upcoming stud males bring from $5,000 to $10,000 each.
It is not hard to understand why Llamas are so suited to the lifestyle blocks, as they are extremely versatile and hardy animals, and have few health problems. They respond well to training and are great with children.
 Llamas have wonderful strong & light fibre keenly sought after by spinners and weavers.
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