The Swing of Things

I grew up in central Southland in a little place called Hokonui. There’s nothing there except farms. My parents bought just over one hundred acres there when I was three. I went to Hokonui Primary School, which in my final year had twenty-two students. I grew up on the farm helping out in lambing, some tractor work and some of the stock work. The farm got bigger – they were up to about 1,000 acres and then sold a block, so down to 800-ish now. My mum passed away last year, but my dad’s still on the farm, so I’m sure he’d be telling me how impractical I am now. But farming is still on the cards. I’m an only child, and I think the plan is for me to have a bit more involvement now.

I’ve played sport all my life. I started playing Kiwi netball at age seven, when you were allowed to start, on the winter courts outside in Winton. We were way tougher back then, because sometimes it frosted. They had to get the fire brigade to wet the courts and sweep the water off so it melted. Everyone played netball back then – that’s what you did when you grew up in a country school.

I boarded at Southland Girls’ High School, just during the week. And then went to Otago University and did law and an economics honours degree as well. I was going to do something in economics as a career. I did first-year law and I didn’t like it much, but I got into second-year and you’ve got to carry on then! I liked criminal law from the get-go. At the end of my fourth and fifth years, I summer clerked at the Crown Solicitor’s office in Invercargill. I worked there for the Crown for three years after I finished uni and then got a job at the Crown here in Nelson. And then I went out on my own as a defence lawyer in 2016.

In mid-2020 one of my friends who works at the Crown, her partner at the time had gotten really into woodchopping. I’d done a charity fight for Victory Boxing, so we bonded over that. He’s like, “Well, come out, see my coach.” So I went out to Dave McEwen, who manages Paratiho Farms, near Motueka. The first thing is to put your safety socks on. Dave put a mark on the wood with some chalk and was like, “Hit that!” just to make sure I actually did have hand-eye coordination. The first blocks were really, really hard. Your technique is terrible. And my lawyer hands didn’t cope – they got blisters straight away. I’m hoping my technique is getting there. My swing is getting a lot better, so that’s helping – my swing’s still really slow compared to some, but I get lots of power into each hit.