The Cheese Ark

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The Cheese Ark The Cheese Ark gathers rare cheese that are on the brink of being phased out by time and progress.
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More than just artisanal, these are cheese that will soon be gone. So come down to The Cheese Ark and taste these rare authentic cheese for yourself.

03/10/2026

It’s been rather here as autumn approaches because baby lambs are being born.

The first thing we do every morning is head towards the stable to see how many new baby lambs were born during the night. As I walk to school, I think of a number in my head and see if it turns out to be right. The least we’ve had was 1 and the most, 5. Bonanza.

Then starts the game of trying to match the lamb to its respective mother. Not an immediately obvious answer when every lamb and ewe is running around the pen.

After, there’s weighing, tagging and shots to be given. But no one complains because the work involves lots of cradling, even when it’s one still drenched in amniotic fluid.

It’s beautiful to witness a birth live, not after. We’re in TV drama worthy awe watching it happen, trying to be still and as invisible as our peering eyes would let us be; so as not to harass the ewe too much. It’s hard to be a quiet spectator when contractions begin. Instinctively, you try to will things to happen.

Baby lambs soften everyone, the guys - no matter the age - look like proud, happy, doting gentle fathers cradling one. But there’s real work to be done each day. We have to rub orphaned lambs in another’s amniotic fluid so that it will be adopted and therefore have a source of milk.

There was a still birth and we had to tend to the first time ewe, who was clearly traumatised and depressed. Post natal depression is as real for sheep. She became much better after we convinced her that another lamb was her own.

Most of the babies are born black because of the ram’s dominant gene. And only once did we get one completely white. And just yesterday, we had one that looks like a Holstein cow often seen in milk ads - a good half and half.

It’s sad when the lambs die. But they don’t die in vain. We practice how to put a cast on a broken leg and also autopsy it to try and figure out what went wrong. It’s a life well served, even if it was a life mere days old. The cycle of life happens whether we like it or not. Giving an animal its best life possible whilst it is breathing and making sure maximum good comes out of its death is the most ethical way

06/09/2026

I’m glad you’re enjoying my time spent with the goat as much as I did. It was definitely one of the more precious days out with them. I hope this video answers some of the questions you had for me.

05/09/2026

Of course when you share a rock with a goat and just by being there with it, there’s plenty to observe.

I’m so glad that it’s quiet up there in the mountains and you can hear its breathing and sighs and chewing really well. None of what you hear is from me at all.

It’s an intimate couple of minutes with a goat. And you get to see how it ruminates, which is quite cute to see how it actually happens. And thankful it let me get this up close that I could capture it and show you the things I see.

Put the sound on if you can!

04/09/2026

I think one of the reasons why I like shepherding is the sheer amount of time spent observing the animals.

In the hours spent together, at some point, they’ll come to trust more and more. With goats, it’s even more rewarding because they are highly sentient to human emotions. I’ve had more than enough rough days and incidences to know that this is absolutely true. And when a connection is made, the feeling is magical. And I sure hope it is mutual.

Hours spent together also means there’s opportunity to interact individually and being right next to them, not chasing or driving them around but just being and sharing a moment together.

These, of course, are fleeting and therefore precious. I hope you get a sense of it from these videos 😊.

28/08/2026

Hello Everyone!

As promised, I’m going to show you where the goats and cows actually are in the earlier post!

I’m show you where they are and then zoom out again so you can try and see if you can spot them from afar.

It’s a little safari-like 😂. Hope you have fun looking!

23/08/2026

I followed the goats out right after milking to see where they roam to graze.

Up on the alps it’s a very different feeding pattern. Since there are effectively no trees or shrubs at 2300m subalpine level, it’s interesting to see what they’d eat in the absence of leaves.

We were out from 8am till about 2pm. This is a snippet of my morning out.

Try and see if you can spot the goats and the cows from afar at the end of the video. That’s the kind of distance we have to get used to spotting the animals. It’s challenging but worth a try. They are there, I promise you.

21/08/2026

Giving you a minute’s worth of goat grazing and agility. It’s therapeutic to watch, I promise.

In fact, to call it grazing is technically wrong. Goats are browsers and what you see in this video is a great way to explain it. Unlike sheep and cows who graze, goats will eat leaves and woody shrubs above ground.

This difference alone gives them a more delicate digestive system than sheep or cows. By not grazing at ground level, they are less immune to parasites in the soil. It always makes me think about 垃圾吃，垃圾大 😂. They both share the same logic.

It’s always fun to watch them get acrobatic in getting to the leaves. A lot of times, they will also work as a team. When someone has managed to pull a branch down, the rest will come forward and feast together, thereby holding the branch down for everyone - teamwork. You would think that it’s every goat for himself, hoarding a branch with juicy leaves and headbutting everyone else out of the way but no.

Sure, goats are social with their flocking instinct i.e. the way they move and stay together and how they communicate i.e if one is separated from the herd, you’ll hear it for sure. But how do they know they have to work together for food? I always wonder. 

Anyways, I hope you’ll enjoy this one.

21/08/2026

Hello Everyone!

I’m back working with the goats in Savoie this week and it was good to be able to take them out to graze, especially since the weather was lovely.

This is another compressed minute and a half of my life as a shepherd, which essentially is about taking animals out to graze. But as you have seen by now, although the definition remains the same, each day on the job looks very different and that’s part of the appeal, at least to me 😂.

And if this snippet brings you some sort of joy to watch, that makes me happy too.

Happy Weekend ahead, Everyone! ❤️

16/08/2026

It’s obvious that I love donkeys but here’s the reason why I’d like to ditch them sometimes. Hope you’re enjoying a few minutes of my life. ❤️

15/08/2026

Donkey tales.

IG wants videos under 3mins but since many of you keep asking me what I do during the day, I decided to not compress everything to the point where you have no idea how long it takes for me to do what I do.

A lot of my time is spent looking for animals in the forest - sheep, cows, donkeys, horses. As the forest is large, even with the help of bells, it’s not easy trying to locate them. Sometimes I can’t hear them at all, and other times because of the way sound reverbs, they are not where I think they are.

All in all, we spent an hour finding the donkeys, haltering them and getting them back to the farm. Part of the fun is looking and enjoying the process, which is counter to the usual habit of getting things done fast. And that’s when I really feel I’m working at Nature’s pace.

Hope you enjoy the next few minutes walking through the forest with me.

Address

49 Stirling Road #01/489
Queenstown
141049

Opening Hours

Wednesday 12:00 - 21:00
Thursday 12:00 - 21:00
Friday 12:00 - 21:00
Saturday 11:00 - 21:00
Sunday 12:00 - 18:00

Telephone

91750090

Website

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