Finding a balance between work and play in NZ

Mary on top of the world - Mt Ruapehu, New Zeland.

By Mary McBride - multi-sporter and dentist!

I came to New Zealand in 1999 and discovered more outdoors, hills and rivers than you could shake a stick at.  I grew up on a farm in Northern Ireland and had spent much of my youth wandering through bucolic pastures (or chasing cows around fields) but had abandoned them for the bright lights of the city, pints of Guinness and chasing boys around nightclubs.  An all or nothing kind of gal.

When I arrived, I still felt the need to have buildings and bright lights around. With the harbour glistening on a bright sunlit day as I rounded the corner at the bottom of the Ngauranga Gorge, Wellington, the Coolest Little Capital, was always going to be my favourite city – great food, art, music, theatre, sport – and you could walk everywhere – there was just no contest.

I secured a job as a dentist in a city practice, discovered the positive and “give it a go” attitude of Kiwis, their generosity of spirit, and was blown away with Wellington J.  I watched the races on the waterfront from my flat window (an ant infested old house, now buried under apartments, on Oriental Parade); “Splash and Dash”, parents running around pushing buggies in front, and was inspired by their determination to stay fit despite the rigours of life. 

It's not all beers and sunshine!

Tauranga Bay seems like a lifetime ago - Heidi and family.

By Heidi Chandler. Our intrepid caravaner updates us on life on the road.

So, we’re half way through a year of travelling around beautiful NZ.   Just us, the kids and the dog, in a 22 ft caravan with the country at our feet.   The first four months were spent in the upper half of the North Island, frolicking on beaches, sipping on latte’s, and revelling in the warm weather, sunshine, and the happy kids this combo had created.

As it turned out though, we were dreaming if we thought we could avoid winter altogether, as we did indeed get some rain.  Basically two weeks of it non-stop!  As it deluged outside, the cabin fever was taking grip.  Our morning walks had ceased, the effort to keep the mud at bay was gargantuan, we had a constant wet dog at our feet, and the kids were in need of serious entertaining.    The mud problem was soon diminished by an expertly placed towel at the door, this also helped contain the wet dog problem. 

Marry in haste repent at leisure (or not!)

By Angela Bensemann

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a real planner (and a control freak).  Sometimes some of life’s biggest decisions just happen and can’t be planned.  That’s actually quite a challenge for someone like me but sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

One of my favourite stories goes like this.

Back in the day my boyfriend of one month (I’ll call him the scouser as he’s from Liverpool) decided to come to New Zealand (we’d met in the UK but I was on my way home again).  We weren’t sure how we were going to get on – let’s face it we hardly knew each other.

The scouser left England with a backpack and a six month visitor’s VISA. 

Things were going well so he converted the visitor’s VISA to a working VISA and we set up house. Several months later the scouser popped the question and we decided to marry at some time in the distant future.

We waited till my parents visited us the following week to tell them the news of the coming nuptials but the scouser’s parents were on holiday so they had to wait to find out.

In the meantime the scouser went to re-new his working VISA and was told it had expired, couldn’t be renewed and he had 10 days to leave the country.

Jewellery making passion turns to business success

By Rowena Chin, owner and founder of RO Design Jewellery

A health problem eight years ago made me think of a new work direction. That's what happens when you spend 18 days in hospital with nothing to do but think. My health prevented me from playing sport for a couple of years so I was gutted.

I realised I didn't have any craft activities that I enjoyed doing so I was on the search for something non-active to take up. Upon doing a jewellery making class with a group of friends, I fell in love with designing and being creative with beads. I couldn't sleep because ideas kept churning through my head.

I had never really been into wearing jewellery until a friend bought me a pendant necklace to wear with jeans and a simple white tshirt. Whenever I wore that necklace I would get so many compliments. With my newfound love of designing jewellery I thought I could make people look and feel great by designing beautiful jewellery for them to wear. 

Armed with my background in accounting and advice from a friend to "GO FOR IT...what have you got to lose?", I launched RO Design Jewellery, working from home.