LIVES LESS ORDINARY

Naomi Arnold is an award-winning Nelson journalist who has written for most New Zealand magazines and newspapers including New Zealand Geographic, North & South and The Listener. She occasionally contributes to international outlets including The Guardian and The Washington Post. She started her writing career at the Nelson Mail in 2009, where she wrote features for five years before becoming a freelance writer and author. She has written the critically-acclaimed history of New Zealand astronomy Southern Nights (HarperCollins), World of WearableArt: 30 Designers Tell Their Stories (Potton & Burton), and is co-author of new release Force of Nature, a history of Forest & Bird, with renowned Nelson author David Young (Potton & Burton). Her next book, a memoir about walking the length of New Zealand on Te Araroa, is forthcoming from HarperCollins. 

Rebecca Hayter grew up in the rural community of Golden Bay and loved sharing her classmates’ farming lifestyles. However, she was also passionate about writing. She graduated from the University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English in 1985. She then began writing for Boating New Zealand and bought a 26ft yacht which provided an unofficial course in DIY – skills that would later prove useful on her lifestyle block. Rebecca joined Boating New Zealand as yachting editor in 1998 and became its first woman editor a year later. She led a major overhaul of the magazine to win 2006 Editor of the Year – Supreme Overall Winner. After more than 12 years over two terms as editor, she resigned to return to her rural roots and buy Oceanspirit, the small farm which would be her home for the next seven years. She now lives in Nelson, keeps her launch Nantucket at Waikawa and continues to write about boats.