Now settled in Cheviot, in North Canterbury, Mr Pyper has been selected for three transtasman shearing test teams and has shorn sheep all round the world.
"My advice to young shearers starting out is to make a goal and make it happen. Whatever you do, you’ve got to have a goal, otherwise you’re just coasting.
"It’s a little bit of hard work, but it’s definitely worth it and it takes you places. It’s taken me around the world."
He grew up around shearers — his mother was a shearers’ cook and his uncle and cousin were both professional shearers.
"My cousin said, ‘You never really start shearing until you’re 30 years old’, so I went away overseas and had some fun and then I came back."
After shearing professionally for just three months, Mr Pyper met a young Welsh shearer who invited him to shear in Wales.
That was 20 years ago and, as a teenager, he won the senior final at the Royal Welsh Show.
On his way back, Mr Pyper went to work in Western Australia, where he was introduced to merino sheep for the first time.
"I jumped off the plane, I was just 18 or 19 years, and I caught a bus and went up to a place called Dongara.
"That experience in Western Australia shaped me as a shearer," Mr Pyper said.
While there he received mentoring from an experienced shearer who had represented both New Zealand and Australia in shearing tests.
Of all the sheep breeds he has shorn, merino is his preferred sheep.
Last October, Mr Pyper won the New Zealand Merino Championship at Waimate, which earned him selection in the New Zealand test team to face Australia for the third time.
Due to Covid-19, that test has not taken place, but he was part of the national team which beat Australia at the Golden Shears last year, having previously been part of a New Zealand team which lost on Australian soil.
Over the years, Mr Pyper has won 32 open finals including four in Australia, the New Zealand Corriedales Championship at the Canterbury A&P Show in 2015 and 2018 and the New Zealand longwool title at Lumsden last year, as well as two appearances in the Golden Shears final.
This year, Mr Pyper’s goal was to gain selection for the world shearing championships, but with the event cancelled, he is reassessing his goal and a record attempt some time over the next two years is a possibility.
His personal bests were 670 crossbred lambs shorn in a nine-hour day and 500 ewes in nine hours, but he hoped to pass 600 ewes and 700 lambs.
"It’s possible, but there’s going to need to be a lot of homework. Maybe next year or the following year, when I can plan something."
Now settled in Cheviot with his partner, Ripeka Ferris, Mr Pyper enjoyed being close to the beach.
"You’ve got to work and have a bit of leisure as well. I enjoy a bit of fishing and surfcasting and I just love everything about the beach. It’s my local supermarket."
