Runner-up Share Farmers of the Year, Bernice and Carlos Delos Santos.
He had to borrow money to buy a bicycle to get to his first relief milking job at Mangakino.
Sixteen years later, Carlos Delos Santos and his wife Bernice were named runners-up Share Farmer of the Year at last month's national Dairy Industry Awards, also picking up the Ecolab Farm Dairy Hygiene merit award.
Theirs is a success story built on hard work.
Carlos was studying mechanical engineering at university in Manila, the Philippines capital, when his parents decided the family could carve out a better future in New Zealand.
We'll never give up on any challenges, and we've had a few of them ...
Carlos got into farming because he needed work.
"I'd never even seen a farm before I came here," he says.
But milking cows came naturally to him.
"The hardest part at the time was understanding the lingo, the accent and getting used to country quiet. It was a new culture...everything was different - the climate too. At first I was wearing a hoodie and jacket in the middle of November."
From a farm assistant position, Carlos progressed to herd manager for 1000 cows, and then assistant manager on a 750-cow farm.
Bernice had worked as a registered nurse in the Philippines before coming to New Zealand in 2007. By 2008 she had married Carlos and now the couple are 50/50 sharemilking a 300-cow herd on the McPherson Family Trust farm at Ngakuru, near Rotorua.
Carlos says he is very proud of the way he and Bernice work as partners, and how they've persevered through some down times. With another baby born a month ago, they now have three children under seven.
"We'll never give up on any challenges, and we've had a few of them over the years. I remember a time a few years ago when our first two kids were still young. Everything seemed to be going wrong - the weather was pretty crap, we were short of grass, stuff was breaking.
"We could easily have said 'that's enough', and stepped away. I think it has made us more resilient people, able to look on the bright side.
"Bernice has been very full-time on the farm, as well as doing the housework and paperwork. When our first son came in June one year, she was rearing cows in July. She has been in the deep end a lot of times."
The couple, both 33, won the 2017 Central Plateau Sharemilker of the Year Award, and have picked up the region's dairy hygiene award for the last two years, as well as awards for human resources, pasture and business performance in 2017.
"We walked into their cowshed and couldn't believe it was over 30 years old," judges for the national dairy hygiene award said.
"It looked fantastic. They lived and breathed their philosophy that the cowshed was the place where they produce the finest quality milk that goes on to supply food for the rest of the world."
Federated Farmers Dairy Chairman Andrew Hoggard said the Santoses were a shining example of the significant contribution and leadership immigrants can bring to New Zealand.
"It is debatable whether the Santoses would have been allowed to stay in this country under the new rules being proposed," Andrew noted. "I imagine a lot of the Filipino staff on New Zealand farms will take pride in this achievement with them. In these times of anti-immigrant sentiment, Carlos and Bernice exemplify how a country can be so much richer for having people of their calibre in it."
Carlos is proud of his Filipino roots.
"Immigration, particularly in the dairy sector, plays a big part keeping the cowsheds going and I guess that's good for the whole country," he says. Every person brings a different skill set but he acknowledges the Filipinos' reputation for hard work.
"Friesian cows do a lot of protein, they're known for it," he says. "Often when you hear or read the word 'Filipino', right next to it is 'hard work'.
"I guess it's how our parents brought us up. You have to work hard and not take things for granted."
The family is enjoying New Zealand life and their goal is to own a farm by 2030.
"When I say home now, I mean New Zealand," Carlos says.
¦Christopher and Siobhan O'Malley were named the 2017 New Zealand Share Farmers of the Year, Hayley Hoogendyk became the 2017 New Zealand Dairy Manager of the Year and Clay Paton was announced the 2017 New Zealand Dairy Trainee of the Year.