Big wheels of cheese, gaining speed, bouncing and bobbing their way over humps of green tussock and lumps of cow-trodden earth, chased eagerly downhill by contestants, is something you'd to expect to see in the UK.

Not this time – and with no chance of broken bones either. Gloucester's famous competition – albeit in a slightly safer format – transpired at Chris and Jill Whalley's steep paddock in Katikati in autumn.

The couple, who have been making their artisan Mount Eliza cheeses at the property since 2007, hosted their inaugural cheese rolling competition as part of the Flavours of Plenty Festival.

More than 50 people took part in the event, which culminated in a walking-talking tour of Mount Eliza Cheese factory, cheese racing for young and old alike, finished with an afternoon tea of cheese-filled delights dished up by some talented Toi Ohomai chef students.

However, the couple – who pride themselves on their raw-milk Red Leicester and Farmhouse cheddar, and their pasteurised Blue Monkey cheese – are still on a roll.

Blue Monkey recently won a gold medal in its class at the New Zealand cheese awards. 'It was one of only two golds in the class out of 15 medals given – the rest being silver and bronze,” says Jill.

Yesterday, Mount Eliza's Blue Monkey went to head-to-head with the fellow gold winner – to vie for the Champion Blue Cheese Trophy at the NZ Champions of Cheese Awards gala dinner.

Chris is originally from England where he was a chemist. He moved to New Zealand in 2006 with wife Jill, an ex-Matamata girl, and their children Rebecca and Owen, and established Mount Eliza Cheese.

The family has worked hard to create their cheeses – and such dedication has been acknowledged with many awards over the years.

Ladies line up to chase cheese downhill at Mount Eliza's inaugural cheese rolling competition. Photo: Merle Cave.

But the Whalley's biggest triumph has been gaining permission to produce raw (unpasteurised) milk cheese from the Ministry for Primary Industries.

In 2014 Mount Eliza was the first cheese factory in NZ to produce raw milk cheddar – after Chris and Jill spent seven years on food safety and risk management programmes and farm audits, to gain approval. They even worked with the MPI to create the guidelines.

'It always was a long-term plan of ours from when we set up in 2007, to use raw milk,” says Chris. 'It's just took a lot longer than we thought.”

Why raw milk cheese? 'You get a lot better flavour and texture through raw milk,” says Chris.

'You don't kill off a lot of the enzymes that help to produce the flavours and the feel of the cheese.”

It's obvious cheese-making requires patience. 'It's all about attention to detail and finely tuning the recipe over a few years,” says Chris, who sources raw milk from a local dairy farmer.

Mount Eliza Cheese has been a regular at Katikati, Tauranga and Tamahere farmers' markets – along with Chris in his distinct cheesemaker white apron and hat – for 15 years.

What's next? 'Well, our cheese is being used by restaurant Norris & Bell on The Strand in their 2022 Matariki Dish Challenge entry, called ‘Boil up',” says Jill.