The couple — who met at university in South Africa — slept in front of the fireplace for six months until they could afford a bed and wore clothes from the Salvation Army.
When their car needed tyres to pass its warrant of fitness, Hannes asked his boss if he could take two snow tyres from the silage stack.
"Our story is one with really humble beginnings," Lyzanne says.
But the couple never saw the move as a big sacrifice. Rather, as Lyzanne recalls, it was a "dream come true".
"For us, it was an adventure . . . a new life. It was so amazing to be here and see what the country offers, see what we could achieve here."
And it was that passion for the dairy industry that had given them "everything" — a business, hope and a future. Now that future was open to their sons so they could do whatever they liked.
"We know where we come from, how desperate we were for just an opportunity. For somebody to trust us and believe in us."
Hannes started as a farm assistant near Te Aroha while Lyzanne picked up night shifts at a local supermarket. Hannes progressed through the industry because he educated himself. He knew how to research things thanks to his university studies — he has a degree in horticulture and agricultural economics — and he picked out articles to read and he asked questions.
He would go to DairyNZ discussion groups and strike up conversations. When he was appointed herd manager, he would offer to help with other tasks once milking finished so he could learn other skills. Within five years, he had gone from dairy assistant to the couple being lower-order sharemilkers.
In 2011, the family shifted to the South Island and, the following year, the couple won the Southland Farm Manager of the Year title in the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards, winning the award for human resources in the national final.
Their passion was employing staff and educating them in a way that set them up for success.
Now contract milking at Woodlands, they had employed many migrant workers along with Kiwis.
Coming from such a multicultural country as South Africa had given them the edge to work with and understand different cultures and they loved having that diversity among their team, Lyzanne said.
Their love of education paved the way for the couple to home-school their three sons but it has also extended outside their farm gate; the couple founded their own training business, AgriTeachMe, and partnered with Agricademy last year to bring affordable and effective agricultural training to Southland.
Whether it was skills needed for tractors, farm bikes, health and safety, effluent or pasture management — "you name it" — it was apparent that it was needed, and nobody was filling that need.
Often there was a language issue with migrant workers and even though they did receive training on farm, a lot got missed because they did not understand it.
The couple are involved with the Nepalese and Filipino groups in Southland and, as they began the training, they saw how much of a need there was.
Now Hannes is keen to approach machinery businesses to see if they would help provide a tractor for training. Farmers often were not training them in driving tractors because they were so expensive, but that created a health and safety risk.
Educating migrant workers came naturally to them.
"We know where we’ve come from and how we got there and the importance of training. Both of us are really good at talking to a group of people and giving them training. It’s something we love doing and we know the value of it, being the employers ourselves, having trained staff that can actually do the job," Hannes said.
Sometimes, workers later returned with their families, to show the couple their children and tell them their achievements. That brought something into their heart, Lyzanne said.
