Dreamview Creamery
Raglan producers Dreamview Creamery achieved 2026 OFPA Champion status being named Leefield Station Dairy Champion for their Natural Probiotic Yoghurt with Boysenberry Compote. Judges’ noted it was “a pleasing swirl of boysenberry...it’s well-balanced sugar and tartness...” Dreamview Creamery is the result of a pivot by the Hill family, and this is their story…
There's a moment on the farm just before sunrise where everything is still. Then Jess Hill walks into the paddock and gently calls "wakey wakey girls" - a slumbering herd of Friesian cows - and the day begins.
It sounds simple, but almost nothing about Dreamview Creamery is.
Set above the Tasman Sea in Raglan, this dairy farm is shaped as much by wind and salt air as it is by the family who run it. Parents Bronwyn and David Hill own the 121 hectares. Bronwyn manages the creamery and product development; David - farmer, builder, carpenter, and all-round handyman - engineers bespoke equipment, including the wooden crates used for collecting and returning bottles. Their oldest daughter Jess manages the farm today, and it was her idea to launch Dreamview Creamery on site. The twins, Kathy and Matthew, remain involved wherever possible - Kathy previously managed the farm, while Matthew designed the upgraded creamery facility, completed in 2021.
"We've all done a little bit of everything here," says Bronwyn.What stands out first isn't the award-winning milk - it's the mood. The herd is small, around 160 cows, and intentionally so. No rush in the shed, no pressure to push production. "Everything we do here is to minimise stress on the cows." "It's not a tagline - it shapes everything, from how the animals are handled across their lifetime to how the farm is structured. All calves are reared on site and none are sent to the works, with older stock beef shared amongst family, staff and neighbours.
That decision to scale down to a model reminiscent of the early days was part of a much bigger shift. Years ago, the farm supplied milk through Fonterra. But over time, the model stopped fitting. Working part-time at university, Jess had been exposed to something different: small-scale bottling, direct-to-customer, minimal processing. That was the spark she brought home.
Leaving Fonterra wasn't a clean pivot. "We didn't simplify it," Bronwyn admits. "We actually made it far more complicated."
They started by bottling milk for neighbours in the milking shed. Then came a shipping container fitted out as a tiny creamery - three people in a tight space, figuring it out as they went. No big launch, just word of mouth. "It just sort of grew naturally… people started finding out about it."
Raglan helped. It's a place that already leans toward low-waste, local systems. Glass bottles made sense. Customers returned them, the team washed and reused them, and milk was delivered door-to-door - often the same day it was collected. From there, the family faced another call: stay small, or invest. They built a full creamery. "It was scary," Bronwyn says, "but I'm still really glad that we have."
Today, the difference in Dreamview’s A2 protein pasteurised milk - and especially loved raw milk - is clear from the first taste. "It's just so fresh… literally from that morning's milking to their door that day." Lightly pasteurised, minimally handled - "the most we do is pasteurising." Customers describe it as richer, creamier, sometimes even slightly sweet. Some say they can't go back to supermarket milk.
The yoghurt follows the same logic. "Literally culture and milk. That is it." Bronwyn is responsible for Dreamview's yoghurts, milks and whey jars - but insists the milk speaks for itself. Strip it back, keep it honest.
Recognition has come more recently: awards, wider attention, new customers beyond Raglan. "We weren't searching for that kind of recognition," says Bronwyn. For a long time, they were focused on one thing: making a quality local product regardless of growth.
At the end of each day, the measure of success is still simple. "For me, it's all our drivers home safe and all the animals happy. That's our sole purpose,” Jess explains.
And then there's the view - the one that gave Dreamview its name. "The view is stunning… the wind is horrendous," Bronwyn laughs.
It hasn't been easy getting here. But they stayed with it. And what they've built feels less like a business chasing scale, and more like a system that works - for the land, the animals, and the people holding it all together.
Visit Dreamview Creamery’s website or directions to their farm store and all their stockists.