Forget Santa. Why not have your Christmas photograph taken with the “local” alpaca that sneezed on King Charles?

For several years, Hephner’s human family have run Christmas ‘Santa’ photographs with the alpaca and other animals at their Goulburn farm, Fletchers Ark Farmyard, in New South Wales.

Robert Fletcher said it began following the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The children came up with the idea to do some Santa photos, so it started (with us) using an Apple iPhone on an iPhone stand, bluetoothing to the printer and then printing the photos,” he said.

“The first year we did maybe 100-odd families, and then last year we were close to 400.”

Mr Fletcher said people travelled from other parts of Australia, and sometimes internationally, to have their photograph taken with Hephner – who is, of course, named after the late Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner.

“People are travelling a couple of hours, sometimes more, for photos,” Mr Fletcher said

“A couple of his top (social media) followers have come for photos over the time.

“It’s just a fun thing to do.”

So how did Hephner, the 9-year-old alpaca, become such a superstar?

The Fletchers, which includes Robert’s wife, Jayne, and their three children, purchased him eight years ago to mate with their female alpaca.

“In the end, we bought him for his temperament because he was so quiet,” Mr Fletcher said.

He said from there, the children started bringing Hephner inside the house.

Mr Fletcher’s daughter then entered the alpaca into competitions at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, with much success.

The family also began taking him on visits to nursing homes, including Clare Holland House, in Barton.

“And the rest is history,” Mr Fletcher said.

“Never in a million years did I think that this is what I’d be doing today but, as far as I’m concerned, he’s one-in-a-million.”

While Mr Fletcher works off and on the farm, he said the visits with Hephner had “really taken off over the last few years”.

And now, to that infamous meeting (and sneezing) on King Charles outside the Australian War Memorial during the Royal visit to Canberra on 21 October.

“We arrived at around 9:30am and I think there were about 50 or 60 people lined up to get in and one of the security guards came up and said, ‘You probably won’t be able to get him in today’,” Mr Fletcher said.

“My initial thought on the day was, if we get there and take a photo of Charles in the distance, that would be a good enough sort of thing. Then I explained to the security guard that we had been to the war memorial before. We’d even stood up behind the judge’s bench at the Supreme Court just to demonstrate how quiet he was.

“So, when we got down there (AWM), he basically said ‘No, you’re right to go through’.”

It was the help of others that got the pair to the front of the barrier.

“We lined up down the bottom to start off with then a lady came along and said, ‘You’ll get a better view from up the top’, so everyone just took off. As people were running, they were saying, ‘Get near the alpaca because he’ll get a photo with the King, for sure’,” Mr Fletcher said.

“When we got up the top, it was quite crowded, but they let me in, so we pretty much had a front-row seat.”

It was Mr Fletcher’s first time meeting King Charles.

“He just asked who this was, I told him it was Hephner, and he asked what we did, and I said, ‘He’s like a support alpaca,’ Mr Fletcher said.

“Then he reached out to touch him on the nose and then Hephner sneezed. Had a bit of a laugh. Charles was sort of a bit taken aback.

“But it was just funny how it all happened because we’d been standing there for three hours waiting.

“Normally if he’s getting a bit bored I’ll rub his nose and play with his lip.

“I’m not surprised because alpacas do sneeze, but I was surprised it happened when it did.”

Other celebrities the pair have met include musicians Jimmy Barnes, Guy Sebastian and Tones and I, actor John Waters, and former Governor-General of Australia David Hurley.

Mr Fletcher and Hephner are regularly invited to attend community events, from weddings to awards ceremonies and galas, and even visited a school in Randwick for a muck-up day.

Each year, Mr Fletcher and Hephner also embark on a tour to raise money for a mental health charity.

The Santa photographs can be booked here: trybooking.com/events/landing/1317953 You might even get to meet some of their other animals, which include pygmy goats, deer, miniature cows, Shetland ponies, llamas and other farmyard animals.

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