An animal sanctuary near Wānaka is offering refuge for animals and a unique experience for visitors with ‘behind-the-scenes’ farm tours now on offer. 

Kind Farm is home to a variety of animals, including dogs, pigs, goats, donkeys, miniature ponies and a flock of hand-reared sheep. 

Owner Dale Courtenay - a lifelong animal lover - started out fostering and rehoming animals before she “quickly recognised that I can’t rehome anything”.

“I wanted to create a space where we were kind to animals,” she said. “I wanted to make my little bit of change in the world I guess.”

Nearly every animal at Kind Farm has a “sad story”, Dale said, “but we want to leave that behind when they come to us”.

The goal is to provide them with a fantastic life in their “forever home”, a rural property near the Cardrona River.

Kind Farm has its own nursery, and native revegetation work on the property is also well underway.

It has been used for a handful of special events like weddings; it is also home to a ceramic artist’s studio; and recently it started welcoming visitors for farm tours.

“We’ve stayed under the radar a bit on purpose because we wanted to be set up when we did finally invite the public in,” Dale said.

During the farm tours Dale said visitors can meet and interact with the animals, and learn about the history of the property (a former gold mining site) and the Kind Farm ethos.

The tours are set for an hour but usually last longer as Dale says she is “a bit of a talker”.

Seeing the visitors recognise the unique quirks and personalities of the different animals is always a highlight, Dale said.

Setting up Kind Farm has been a huge project but Dale isn’t finished yet.

“Stage two” of Kind Farm will turn it into a destination with a cafe, landscaped grounds for picnicking and more, Dale said.

Learn more about Kind Farm here.

PHOTO: Kind Farm