Whitestone Cheese

Bob Berry started making cheese on the family farm at Windsor in 1987, in the middle of the collapse that followed the removal of agricultural subsidies, as a way of adding value to milk when sheep and beef returns had gone. The company is named for Oamaru stone, the local white limestone the town is built from. It is still family-run and now one of the larger specialist cheesemakers in the country, best known for soft white-rind cheeses - Windsor Blue, Airedale, Totara, Lindis Pass Brie - which win national awards regularly. The Oamaru site has a cafe, a shop selling seconds and offcuts cheaply, and a viewing window into the make room; guided tours run at set times and include tasting. The North Otago limestone country the milk comes from is the same geology that gives the district its rock formations.

What you actually see

• The make room - visible through the viewing window, and on tours.
• The soft cheeses - Windsor Blue, Airedale and the white-rind range.
• The shop - full range plus cheap seconds and offcuts.
• The origin story - a farm shed during the 1980s subsidy collapse.

When to go

Any season. Tours run at set times on weekdays - check and book. Production runs on a weekday schedule, so weekend visits see the shop but not the making.

Honest expectations

The factory floor is not making cheese at weekends or outside production hours. Tours are ticketed and short. The cafe is small and fills at lunchtime.

Nearby

Oamaru's Victorian Precinct and Steampunk HQ are close; the penguin colony is at the harbour.