Lynda | Hokitika,West Coast

“I guess it is my mum. She moved back to Hokitika after being away from Hokitika for 50 years and she lives one door away from us, now. She’s getting on a little bit. Her maiden-name was Woolhouse.

So, she’s a pioneering family from the Coast. She loves being back home. She’s been really helpful to me,  to ground me back to Hokitika, myself because I came down here before her, bring my boys down here to have a bit of an experience of the Coast and what the lifestyle was like. To try and get away from Auckland and the city after being brought up there my whole life. So, a really different experience for us. But Mum coming home really made it home again and that’s been lovely. So, I’ve had some lovely people in my life while I’ve been down here. Some lovely relatives who have stepped up and been my friends and really helped me to integrate back into the community. One of those people was Merle Bradley, who sadly passed away two years ago from Motor Neuron Disease. She was always the type of person you could go and have a chat with about anything, and she opened up my life here as well by taking me out. We did lots of dressing up. She’s a really lovely person. Her motto was always Look on the Bright Side of Life, and so since she’s been gone, it’s been quite difficult, but we’re just trying to cherish that memory. She did some wonderful things for the whole of Hokitika. Not just me, but when she passed away, we had a memorial service for her, and it had to be held at the Regent. The Regent was chocka full of people to celebrate her being part of our community. She was a very special lady. So, she’s been missed. So I’m grateful for her. I’m grateful to be back in Hokitika, and grateful for the family I have here, and the people I work with at WestREAP. They’re wonderful.

For my mum, it’s just being strong and thinking about that tomorrow’s another day and everything will be fine. She just says, don’t worry about things, it’ll all work out. And from Merle, I guess to always look on the bright side of life, but to take a moment for yourself and do something for yourself. Because we’re busy, I’m a mum, I’m a wife, I work full time, so it’s just about balancing that. She taught me that there’s ways of doing that. There’s taking time for yourself, taking time to help in the community, and taking time to do your job well. It’s about dividing up that time and making sure you get time with your children, and that you celebrate those moments. Even if they’re small, moments like birthdays you make the most of. You don’t just let it go. You celebrate those moments. 

So, I grew up in Auckland. My parents were both from the Coast. They’re both Coasters. Dad was brought up in Runanga, and Mum in Hokitika, and I was always drawn to the Coast. My father died when I was nine. So, he’s buried in Greymouth, and this was my second home. We used to come here once a year. So, when I was finished with school, and married and the children were quite young, my husband was made redundant from quite a substantial job in Auckland. So we decided to come to Hokitika for a year to bring the children down when they were quite young, and we stayed, we’ve been here 13 years, and we love it on the Coast. I work for WestREAP, and I’m the adult community education organiser, I’ve had a lot of roles here, and I’ve been here for nine years. So, my background was research and development, always doing administration. I’ve worked in the share market in Auckland for a long time, where I met my husband.

WestREAP is the Westland Rural Education Activity Provider. So, we provide education opportunities and we fill the gaps for our region, and we work with our community. Our motto is to lift up our community, and to give them opportunities to learn, whatever that might look like to them. We start from children right the way through to adulthood. So, it might be just a fun thing they want to do, like join one of our art classes, but it’s just all about what our community needs are, celebrating those, looking for opportunities to help our community grow, and to fund things and get educated at the same time.”