Whitestone Cheese

Bob and Sue Berry, farmers hit by drought and the rural downturn of the 1980s, started making cheese in a converted garage in Oamaru in 1987, 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.

History

Whitestone Cheese was founded in 1987 by Bob and Sue Berry, former farmers, in a converted garage in Oamaru, in response to drought and the rural downturn of the 1980s, and takes its name from the local Oamaru limestone. It moved to larger premises in Torridge Street in 1998 and expanded its factory in 2017 (Wikipedia, Whitestone Cheese).

What's there

• 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 converted Oamaru garage during the 1980s downturn.

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.

Before you go

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.

Key facts