For the past three months the valley has been hosting, and helping, the Falkland Islands’ national shearing team, who are training for the world championships in Masterton.
Roxburgh shearing referee and judge Fred Parker has a long connection with the archipelago.
He turned down a request to be the team’s manager for the competition, but offered any other help he could.
Falklands team member Adam Dickson arrived in Central Otago in November and has been working with Mr Parker and they have since been joined by the rest of the team — brother and sister Evan and Talia Jones, and Pilar Castro.
Mr Jones said there was a huge difference in the shearing practices of New Zealand.
"It’s all merinos down home. Fine wool. Completely different. I find it very difficult.
"I've only been here a couple of weeks, you know. Adam's getting on very well."
There were usually only one or two shows a year on the Falklands, although to qualify they competed in five.
Ms Jones said for the wool-handlers the differences were also significant.
"The wool prep, so what we're judged on, what we're doing, it's completely different.
"It's a lot more complex here and different things go different places, so it's like learning a whole new skill."
Mr Parker said that was why he wanted the team to come to New Zealand as long before the competition as they could.
Last week they took part in a pre-shears course at Tapanui, he said.
The connection between the two groups of shearers goes back more than 30 years, before some of the current Falklands team members were born.
In 1988 Greg Paterson was shearing in Wyndham when a fellow shearer said he and mate were going to the Falkland Islands to work.
"I didn’t know where the Falkland Islands was.
"I said, ‘well, if your mate pulls it, I’ll go,’ Mr Paterson said.
"A month later, he goes, ‘we’re going to the Falklands. I go, ‘OK, where is it’?"
His preparation took into account what Falklanders might drink and it nearly put him off.
"It was just mind-boggling, really. I’d only been as far as Australia and I didn’t know what beer they drank, so I tried a Guinness.
"I said to Dad, ‘I’m not sure but they’re English, so I’ll try a Guinness’.
"Then I tried it. I said, ‘I can’t drink this’."
Mr Paterson flew initially to London where he stayed with a friend from Roxburgh before boarding the flight to the Falklands.
"The thrill of getting on the plane, flying into the Falkland Islands, getting all escorted by two fighter jets on each wing, because I wasn’t there long after the war."
In April 1982 Argentine military forces invaded the Falklands.
British administration was restored two months later.
While neither country officially declared war, both referred to the disputed area as a war zone.
In total 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel and three Falkland Islanders were killed during the hostilities.
There were 300 military personnel and a few shearers on the flight, Mr Paterson took.
"They gave us a debrief on bombs and mines. Here we have a ‘Slow 65kmh’ sign, there they had ‘Slow Minefield’."
A couple of days later he was taken to the property he was going to shear on.
"That took us 11 hours to get to the shed, because there’s no roads.
"We got bogged about 10 times. Then we arrived at the shed and we weren’t even shearing at that shed.
"We had to get a plane to the next shed."
An archipelago, the Falklands are made up of two main islands.
The climate and landscape was like living at Lake Onslow, above the Teviot Valley, he said.
"You could shear and it would be snowing, raining and sunshine all in one day, but you always had dry sheep."
The island residents were welcoming and "top people", he said.
"The time we had there was absolutely brilliant.
"I actually still dream about going back there, but it was just absolutely brilliant."
Since then roads had been constructed and the military presence greatly reduced.
Five or six years later, Mr Paterson got a phone call at 2.30am from John Jones, Evan and Talia’s father, looking for a shearer.
After discussing the time difference they agreed to reconnect later.
Mr Paterson contacted Mr Parker and told him he had half an hour to decide if he wanted to go to the Falklands.
Six years later Mr Parker returned to Teviot, having spent seven seasons shearing on the Falklands and marrying a Falklander.
In between seasons he was based in England and travelled all around the UK and Europe.
"I used to do nearly four months in the Falklands and then come out and have a month off and then go to Italy for 10 weeks and then do a bit around England and some in Denmark."
About 30 years ago John Jones and his wife Michelle came to Masterton for the World Shearing competition and they will be back next month and there promised to be a party to celebrate the reunion, Mr Parker said.
Several other Roxburgh shearers had gone to the Falklands and a former Roxburgh school teacher, who had taught Mr Parker, moved there to teach.
"I’ve taken five or six [shearers] down with me," Mr Parker said.
Ultimately, he would like to return and use his experience to help lift the standard of shearing there and spend time with his son, who lives there.
"It’s pretty cool to give something back to the time I spent there, like having [the team] here.
"I knew Adam’s dad quite well.
"Pilar was only young when I left the Falklands, but she’s out here competing.
"It’s been good."
