Kylie Leonard is a busy woman – she's a mother of three, a teacher, a farmer, a stalwart member of many community groups and now a Taupō district councillor.
But it still gives her a thrill to throw open her farm gate and welcome people onto her dairy farm.
Photo: RNZ/Carol Stiles
"The farm's my happy place, like my absolute place of joy where I feel at peace and absolutely just the best place to be in the world. And I just love to share that with other people and just get them to see how much farmers actually really love what they do and how much they love the environment, how much they love their animals and what a great industry it is to be involved with," Kylie says.
When school groups visit, Kylie sometimes feels a 'negative vibe' from the parents.
"Then I just go about telling our story and what we do and how we do things and [I'm] just watching the look of revelation, of 'oh, that's not what I thought, oh gosh that waterway is planted,' ...They come into the calf shed and they see the genuine love with the babies... So yeah, it's just really interesting watching their perspective. You can almost see a wave coming over them and a change of attitude. [They seem to think] 'So perhaps if this is the way it is, then. What other perceptions might be wrong?' I find that really an enlightening moment, watching that happen."
Last year, Kylie won the Dairy Women's Network community leader award and this year she's a finalist in the rural section of the New Zealand Women of Influence awards.
