Lauren | Arrowtown, Otago

“I have a lot of kindness from my in-laws. I ride horses as a hobby, and they are so supportive of me. Every dream I have. Everything I want to do.

Every desire I want to do, they’re right there to help me through whatever I need. For me horse-riding has been one of the biggest parts of my life. It started through my childhood, and just the bond I have with the animals, and the training and the satisfaction I get out of producing a good, experienced horse and having a partnership and a friendship with them. It just adds something special to my life.

Kindness and empathy are so important. You might not know what someone else is going through. They might be having a really tough time, but there might just be one small act that you can do to really help them in their life, and make their day a little bit better, make them feel special, appreciated, supported, anything. 

I grew up in Brisbane, Australia through high school over there. I met a Kiwi boy and started a long-distance relationship, and intended to spend six weeks in New Zealand, seeing his family and seeing the countryside, and I never left. So, I’ve been here since I was 19 years old. We worked together on a business we own here in Queenstown, called Pub On The Wharf, and just developing our life and our careers.

Business, it’s tough. It’s really, really tough at the moment. We’ve had two venues in town. We’ve managed to re-open one, and the other we’re just going to try and hibernate until the situation improves. I have an interest in finance and economics, and still trying to find a way through isn’t easy, but we’re here. We’re going to support our staff as much as we can. Get through. Even if we all have to make sacrifices on spending. I know a lot of our employees are on Visas, and for them to go home right now, even the journey home is difficult enough, and what they’re going to get to when they get home. So we have a lot of empathy for them, and we just want to make things work. We want to get better. We want to see this to the other side. At the moment it feels like we’re at the bottom of the low, so it can only get better, and we’re open, so it’s good.

It’s a tough situation for everyone. For landlords, business owners, everyone alike, and we’re all sort of trying to work together, to share this loss. Our landlords have taken a loss in their income. We’ve had seven weeks with no income, and just trying to help each other through, and get back to normal. It’s been really tough. They have reduced the rent for us, which is good, but it’s a business. I guess kindness to each other and from all the businesses that we’re close to that share the same building. We’re all in it together. We all talk to each other. We all try and figure out how we can do the best out of this situation without directly competing against each other.”