Farms with Frills

I'm trying to chase down sheep at 80 kilometers per hour in an ATV, and it's not working. That's not to say that the sheep are fast. Rather, I'm just inept at corralling these white fluff balls, who hop out of the way whenever my red gas guzzler gets close. Perhaps they sense that one of their cousins had an unfortunate brush with me at dinner last night in the form of Wharekauhau Lodge and Country Estate's signature dish: a slab of prize-winning Texel lamb, juice oozing from its tender, marbled flesh.

Set on 2,200 hectares of rolling hills outside Wellington, New Zealand, Wharekauhau is one of the country's oldest and largest sheep stations, dating back to the mid-1800s. Until last fall, couples and families with deep pockets came here to be pampered in ultraluxurious style in one of the estate's 12 private cottages, each with its own ocean-view patio and king-size poster bed. They still do, but now they can also live out their pastoral dreams working as sheepherders (US$2,690 per person for the new three-day package; wharekauhau.co.nz).

Bed-and-breakfast farm stays used to be rustic affairs. But a new generation of city slickers raised on high-end organic food has created an emerging market for upscale do-it-yourself farming experiences. Luxury operators are beginning to spice up five-star rural resorts with a dash of manual labor: herding cattle, fetching eggs, extracting maple syrup, even pulling weeds. At Wharekauhau, clients coming to work as humble farmhands often bring their own nanny and arrive by helicopter—a 10-minute skip from Wellington, as opposed to an hour and a half on gravel roads. (There's also a private grass airfield that doubles as a favorite feeding ground for the sheep.)

On this summer morning in January, 23-year-old shepherd Ryan Hansen meets me in the estate barn, a jumble of stalls littered with wool. A far cry from the Old World décor of the 1,130-square-meter central lodge, this is the no-frills shearing shed. His four sheepdogs have already driven a few sheep up the ramp. Hansen wrangles one from the holding cell, wrestles it to the ground, and proceeds to use an electric razor to transform the animal into a skinny, naked version of itself (he wears special shearing moccasins for grip because sheep, like some humans, dread haircuts).

The next part is more fun: you learn the mechanics of shepherding, or mustering, in professional parlance. Sheepdogs do the heavy lifting while you focus on staying out of their way. Indeed, it's almost impossible to get dogs to respond to the commands of anyone besides their owner; the specialized training alone can take a year. Hansen uses a whistle to direct the dogs; two bark loudly to drive the flock toward the next pasture, while the other two keep tabs on any stragglers. Visitors spend the day on horseback, driving some 1,000 head of sheep on a breathtaking 25-kilometer trek across the far Rimutaka Range pastures—which aren't even fenced because the ridges serve as natural pens—hugging cliffs overlooking the Cook Strait. Afterward, herders relax in the 24-meter heated swimming pool, Jacuzzi, and day spa, or at the main lodge with cocktails and canapés.

For a similar high-end pastoral experience, Relais & Châteaux features several properties that offer luxury farm stays. The Inn at Dos Brisas in Texas, a farm that specializes in horses and organic produce, grows more than 150 varieties of fruits and vegetables, including dozens of kinds of tomatoes alone. Vacationers come for the inn's topnotch cooking and gardening classes, as well as to eat what they picked during the day. The four exclusive casitas feature original artwork, chic Spanish-style furniture, and 1,200-thread-count Egyptian-cotton sheets, and the restaurant boasts a 7,000-plus-bottle wine cellar ($780 per person; dosbrisas.com).

Another Relais & Châteaux property, the Hotel Spa Mizpe Hayamim in Israel's Eastern Galilee, allows guests to milk cows and goats, create their own soap, feed the chickens, and make jam and cheese. Of course, guests are welcome to forgo the work and retreat to the hotel's renowned spa, which offers 45 treatments including a yogurt-and-honey bath, a full Abhyanga Indian massage, and the Lomi-Lomi Hawaiian rhythmic massage (suites from $460 per night; mizpe-hayamim.com).

For the ultimate in getting back to the land luxuriously, Hidden Pond, in Kennebunkport, Maine, is a posh private resort with an organic farm. Opened in the summer of 2008 just down the road from the Bush family's coastal compound, the resort features expansive gardens, where guests are free to pick any produce and flowers they like. They can also sign up for private lessons in organic gardening with the resident gardener, and have a chef cook handpicked veggies back at their two-bedroom designer cottage. Putting on work gloves and that old pair of sneakers for a day of mucking in the dirt never sounded so swanky ($745 per night; hiddenpondmaine.com).