Running a steel fabricating business in Sydney, Sheryl is the "brains" behind the operation, with Tamati having knowledge in farming and hunter/gathering.
"He's more the farming background, I am more the business side of things. I'll make the money and handle the business side of things," Sheryl said.
The couple bought the Raglan property when they returned from Sydney, but Sheryl still spends time in Australia for the fabricating business.
A butcher by trade, Tamati plans to have his own butchery to ensure the pork starts and finishes on the farm and quality is not lost.
Currently the farm has 12 adult pigs and 15 piglets, but Tamati said the challenge they face is finding enough pigs to meet the demand in the market.
"I think free range is probably cheaper [to maintain] because [with mass production] you have a lot of heat lamps in barns. Being on concrete in cages ... it's more about numbers, just getting bulk out there."
Sheryl said they do not want to compromise on quality but still need to get their numbers up.
"There is such demand and we're trying to build up as quickly as we can to meet that demand, but at the same time not compromising on the quality of pigs. That's what anyone can do; just breed them up in cages. That is what they do to meet numbers, but the meat won't have the same flavour."
The aim is to have 100 sows on the farm with 10 boars, breeding a mix of saddleback, big blacks, and domestic pink pigs to achieve quality of meat, size of each litter, and suitability for an outdoor lifestyle.
Kotuku has been picked as a name for the business Sheryl said, as it represents the standard they want to achieve.
"A kotuku is a white heron, a bird, if you look at what it represented back in the day to our people, the feature on that bird was sought after for making cloaks. The way I relate that to the business is that it was sought after because of how good the features were, and that's how we want our produce to be. I want to show that our animals are looked after and cared for at a high level."
For now the focus for Sheryl and Tamati is to build the number of pigs on the farm, but they aim to have the butchery side of the business off the ground in a year. And they're aiming to export in the future.
They have plans for an apple orchard for the pigs and want to keep the food as natural as possible.
"We want to stay away from too much bakery food, and stick to grasses, maize, more organic stuff rather than processed food. We still give them pellets but that is just an interim thing until we are more established."
While building up their stock, some of the animals purchased come from farms where they have never been outside a concrete cage and Tamati said after being on the farm and roaming free, they develop a personality.
"When you give them freedom and space, they have a personality. They're not just behind a fence, when they're roaming around doing their own thing, it puts us at peace knowing they're not in a cage just breeding."
