Personal trainer Anneli Deschamps runs fitness classes in an open-air gym located in an old cowshed in Whakamarama. The gym is surrounded by the sounds of the country and often visited by horses that wander about the paddock. Many of Deschamps’s clients have never been to a gym before and find the peaceful rural environment welcoming and non-judgmental.
The circuits at The Cow Shed Gym include warming up, body weight exercises, weighted exercises, boxing, and stretches. The gym is located on a 323-hectare ex-dairy farm that once had various animals and was self-sustainable. The farm now focuses on blueberries, kiwifruit, and dairy cow grazing, and is owned by a fourth-generation family who plans to keep it as a legacy for the next generation.
Deschamps’s passion for fitness began in Queenstown, where she joined a gym and discovered her love for helping people change their fitness habits and routines. The gym offers a unique and peaceful environment for those who may find traditional gyms intimidating, and clients appreciate the opportunity to work out in a rural setting without the need to commute to a city or town gym.
