INTO THE WILD

Analiese Gregory was raised on a dairy farm at Matamata in New Zealand’s North Island, in the mythical green pastures of ‘Hobbit Country’. She was the kind of country girl – more natural than a paddock – who had 21 pets and kept a praying mantis nest next to her bed.

When she was young, she liked to sit in a field, hang out with dairy cows and read them stories. Her mother, Jacqui, is of Chinese and Dutch heritage and left law school to have children. Her stepfather, Andrew, runs a family dairy farm in the middle of New Zealand’s North Island. It was an idyllic childhood for her and her older sister, Mailing: riding bikes and horses, swimming in the pool, digging in the garden, having whatever pets they wanted. She had calves and a pony she didn’t ride much, but she still made him hot bran mash on cold mornings.