Every weekday morning two dozen Gisborne dogs wait eagerly for the rumble of a bus slowing at their gate.
They're due for a pick up - ready to head out for an excursion to a farm, river or beach with Bernice David-Goodwin.
Bernice runs a doggy day-care with a difference - more like a school holiday programme - except for dogs.
She says the dogs know the routine.
"It's funny; they know their seats. They get in, ready to be clipped in and then we go.
"The dogs seem to look forward to it. They just love it. They know when we are turning up and they know the days we are coming. They sit and wait.
"One of our dogs, Charlie, he just loses his mind. He just flips out, screaming and jumping up in the air because he is so excited. It's hilarious."
When Country Life visited, it was the school holidays so, rather than taking 23 dogs to a possibly busy beach, Bernice and her team headed to her farm, half an hour from Gisborne, for the dogs to race around the paddocks and swim in the dams.
Bernice has 4.5 hectares surrounded by large stations. "We have a little piece of paradise in the midst of it."
Some dogs come from the city but others come for a day out from lifestyle blocks. Most have plenty of energy to burn off.
After hours of wrangling over sticks, diving into ponds, chasing each other and rolling in anything unsavoury they can find, the dogs are exhausted.
They're washed down before a usually quiet drive home.
"You look in the rear vision mirror and they're nodding off. They're either crashed out completely or they are struggling to stay awake."
The dog programme has become a well-known sight in Gisborne with the dogs turning heads when they're surfing at the beach, bounding in and out of rivers and when they're clipped in, sitting face-forward in Bernice's brightly painted buses.
"I see people kind of walking along the street and they look like they've got the world on their shoulders and next minute they look up and see our bus with all the dogs in it and their face just lights up.
"Quite often we have people watching and recording us on our excursions. They are amazed we can control that number of dogs in a pack."
Bernice's dog Coo is her second in command.
"She goes out every day on the excursions and makes sure that everyone is toeing the line. If they are not listening, Coo, will go and round them up."
The dogs seem to get on well, Carlos David-Goodwin says.
"We do make sure we take them on little meet and greets. Coo comes with us and we use her as a stabilising influence to make sure the new dog is alright."
Bernice set up her business after working as an animal welfare officer at Gisborne's SPCA.
"I did a nine year stint. Once I left there I wanted to go on a more positive note. It is a quite a sad situation with the SPCA as you see neglect and cruelty. So I thought let's give it a go."
For Bernice, looking after the dogs is not a job. "Dogs are a passion for me. They chuck off really good energy. They each have their own personalities and we love being around them."
