Ohakune's bookshop family returns to dairy farming

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 268, 20 December 1988, Page 13

Ohakune's bookshop family returns to dairy farming

Ohakune's book shop was handed from one farming family to another last week. The Hammonds, who have had the shop for the past 19 months, sold it to the Berry family. Now they plan to return to dairy farming. They operated their dairy farm in the Waimarino until the

dairy company decided to cease carting their milk to Palmerston North. Bob and Eileen say they will be looking around the Waikato for a suitable farm in February and will shift at the end of May. They say they'll be back to Ohakune often, especially in winter, the quiet time for dairying.

"We've still got a heck of a lot of ties here, with family and friends," said Eileen. She said in the last two years they've taken to skiing, so that will be an added reason to return. The Hammonds say they've sold the book shop to go back t o dairy farming but that they've really enjoyed the time in the book

shop. "It's been a g o o d challenge in the shop," they said. "It

gave us a new lease on life, a new outlook." They say they hadn't previously had much to

do with town people before. "We thoroughly enjoyed it here. We got

to know lots of nice people, a lot of locals we never knew before," said Eileen.