Penny King was sitting in a little flat in Ellerslie when she first fell in love with llamas.

Penny has 23 llamas on her Waitakere block.

“There was a documentary on television and the next day I phoned around the vets and found some,” Penny told Rural Living when we visited her at Karma Llamas.

Penny spent the next ten years going to Raewyn and George McKenzie’s farm to work with their llamas until she could finally afford to buy her own block.  And her own llamas.

Penny has 23 llamas on her ten acre block Waitakere, West Auckland.  From there she runs Llama Treks around the area. 

“We use a number of locations – farmland, bush – beaches.  We have access to a wonderful fresh water lake and I provide a gourmet picnic with wine and everything included,” said Penny.

Treks can be tailored to suit specific needs and the terrain and difficulty is selected to suit the customer.  

And of course – the llamas carry everything.

“Llamas were bred specifically for pack work, alpacas for fibre.  We have specially made baskets for them.”

Penny likened the llamas to cats in personality. “They are aloof. They like things to happen on their terms. But they’re curious and they’re quick learners. And they all have distinct personalities.”

This makes teaching them the rules of trekking easier for Penny. The llamas are taught to walk behind the person leading them. “You know if you are on a narrow track, it’s not a good idea to be pushed off by your llama,” Penny said with a grin.

Penny's girls are intrigued by the approach of visitors.

The Llamas also have what appears to be a low horse jump set up in their paddock and when Penny led them up to it , each llama stepped nimbly over the bar.

“You don’t know what you’ll find on the trek, and they have to know to just step over  over.”

Although in South America llamas meat is eaten and Penny has tasted alpaca meat, she doesn’t breed her animals for consumption.

“I have no philosophical objection to them being used for meat, as long as they have had a good life and are killed humanely. But when things like that go commercial – that’s not often the way it happens.”

Apart from two whippets and a cat Penny keeps no other animals on the block. “We’ve had a couple of goats and raised a steer.  But we just have the llamas now.”

Most people book treks with Penny in the summer but spring and autumn are the ideal time as the lower temperature makes it more comfortable for both humans and llama.

So do they like to go in the water when they are trekking at the beach? “They’re often intrigued by it and have to go in for a paddle,” admitted Penny. “But inevitably there’s a wave and they get out.’