Wayne Richardson's 2ha property beside State Highway 1 at Herbert clearly shows a lifestyle out of the ordinary. Otago Daily Times photographer ChristineO'Connor could not resist stopping for a visit. And as North Otago reporter Hamish MacLean finds out, she is not the only passerby who has stopped for a photograph.
After 30 years in the poultry farm industry in the North Island, Wayne Richardson (63) has found a home in Herbert and the birds that had been a large part of his life in the North now play a different role in his life.
Mr Richardson keeps chickens around because he simply likes having them there.
''This day and age ... everything has to be kept for a reason,'' he says.
''None of these are kept for a reason other than I like them. They don't pay for themselves, they don't have to pay for themselves.''
His brood, which he estimates to be ''around about'' 60, started off as 10 hens and a rooster when he moved to Herbert about six years ago.
He ''inherited'' the rest.
''Over the years, people have dropped off unwanted chooks, unwanted roosters.''
Mr Richardson, who also keeps three donkeys, says he knows his place looks a bit wild, but he likes it that way.
Now, when the freezing worker returns home in the evenings, chickens part on his driveway to let the car through.
When he feeds them the brood surrounds him in a squawking, flapping flock.
The mass of clucking birds, the laid-back donkeys on his property, and the old house he calls home stand out on the drive south to Dunedin.
''You can't miss it,'' he says.
It was love at first sight for the man who moved to Glenavy 10 years ago from Auckland after ''family problems'' there.
''I used to drive past this place and I fell in love with it.
''The first couple of years I kept saying 'I'm going to end up buying it one day'. I went past it one day and they had it for sale, so I bought it.''
These days he gets visitors of all sorts. International visitors and New Zealanders stop to take photographs of his house, he says.
''It's quite an old house - a lot of English people like it - and with all the chickens around it, it attracts people.''
New Zealanders stop in, too.
''People don't see chooks and ducks, these days, like that.''
Children who regularly visit the property make up names for the chickens but Mr Richardson has not named them.
He does, however, admit to talking to the animals from time to time.
''Yeah,'' he said.
''But it makes me sound crazy.''
Is he crazy?
''Not that I know of - but people might think I am.''
