So who am I?

I am an Alpaca, which is a South American Camelid. My keepers call me Macka. I was born in New Zealand to parents who were both also born in New Zealand, so I consider myself to be a Kiwi or New Zealander. My grandfather was born in Australia and my great grandfather was born in Peru. Camelid is the name given to my greater family which include Camels and Llamas! There are two types of Alpaca, Huacaya and Suri. I am the Huacaya type, pronounced Wa-kye-ya, which means my fleece is wavy and fluffy like those funny sheep things you have on the farm. I am a Tui, which is what all alpacas are called once they turn 1 year old. Its means we are no longer a cria or baby alpaca.

So what are Alpacas doing in New Zealand?

New Zealand farmers started importing Alpacas to farm in Aotearoa several years ago, because Alpacas are a bit different and easy to farm. In South America where we all come from there are lots more Alpacas, but once there used to be heaps and heaps more. Because the Spanish people invaded South American and there was a war many Alpacas died and only a small amount of Alpacas were left.

This mean't that all the hard work that had been done by our keepers in South American the Incas, to create really fine and expensive Alpacas was destroyed. All around South America the Alpacas that were left were all different colours and levels of quality. Thats when people from other countries like America, Australia and New Zealand, started looking at farming Alpacas on their own farms to see if they could create alpacas like those that existed during the time of the Incas.

In South America the Inca's used to weave Tunics (tops) out of Alpaca and Vicuna, the very best fleece was reserved for royalty only. This is a picture of an Inca Tunic.

In the time of the Inca people the alpaca fleece was so fine that the material they made from it became currency. What that means is that instead of having dollars and cents to buy things, they used cloth and material made from Alpaca and Vicuna.

This is a picture of me with my mum when I was little: