This is a fascinating and beautiful breed of feral sheep of true kiwi heritage. Like other island breeds they were abandoned onto offshore islands like Arapawa island in the Marlborough Sounds as a food cache for returning sealers and whalers in the early days of pioneering exploration and exploitation of New Zealand by European interests. The origins of the founding stock is obscure and there are as many tales and assertions as there are sheep! However, what we do know is that the animals which survived adapted themselves to their harsh island home by becoming hardy and resilient. Like many sheep in harsh climates they have a super-fine fleece, as fine as merino, which is produced in an array of beautiful natural colours and hues, from a pale cream through silvery grey, russet and dark chocolate brown to almost black. The fine-ness of the fleece appears to give good protection form strong winds and driving rain, and for humans has many potential uses in spinning and felting and in speciality fibre mixes.

The other feature from their island past is that they will naturally lamb in the autumn if allowed to do so, presumably an adaptation to very wet winters and springs, so that the lambs are already well-grown by the time summer arrives and will breed readily in their first year. They are bright, alert and agile animals, more like deer in many ways in their behaviour and appearance. However, they readily become hand-tame and are easy to lead with a bucket of sheep-nuts, and are quiet and tractable if needed to be handled. Their interesting anti-fly behaviour and thick skin means that they are pretty resistant to flystrike, and provided they are given access to bush or mineral supplementation are naturally very healthy and resistant to normal sheep ailments, especially under an organic regime.

Arapawas make very rewarding and interesting animals to keep,especially for the small farmer and speciality breeder, whether they are kept for their wool, as paddock mowers, or just as pets. They have a particular use in cross-grazing systems with horses as they just adore the dock and other weeds that quickly spoil paddocks run with horses alone.