Our Stories: Monique Cooper

Written by Renee Tonkin. Posted in Our Stories.

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At the age of 16, Monique Cooper donned her uniform for the first time as a volunteer firefighter – a move that kickstarted her interest in mechanics and eventually, a flourishing engineering career. Now, Monique is a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, building on her early enthusiasm for employing cutting-edge technologies and processes to help people.

Born in Papakura and raised in Clevedon on the outskirts of Tāmaki Makaurau, Monique’s passion for engineering was sparked by her father – an electrical engineer. Monique used to attend Girls’ Brigade - a Christian youth organisation that focused on personal development and community service - while her father volunteered with the Boys’ Brigade.

Our Stories: Kim, Sera, Anita and Kellee on Mother's Day

Written by Alexandra Birt. Posted in Our Stories.

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“Is that a Kiwi accent I hear?” a fellow mum asked me at the park last week.  On the bus, at the playground, in the pub, these are just a few of the places I have bumped into other Kiwi mums over the last few months. Often conversation starts with the basics: where in New Zealand are you from, how long have you been here, where do you live? And very quickly turn to the dilemmas we share: are we doing the right thing by raising our kids here, should we go home, and where is home?


This got me thinking, there must be so many of us over here. And not just mums, but grandmas, aunties, daughters caring for their mums - Kiwi wahine experiencing motherhood in all of its forms. In celebration of New Zealand Mother’s Day, I spoke to some of these women.

Our Stories: Katrina Megget

Written by Ruth Keeling. Posted in Our Stories.

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Growing up on a one-acre lifestyle block in South Auckland, Katrina Megget didn’t strike her family as being particularly outdoorsy or adventurous. Yet Katrina, 42, has now made a name for herself internationally as an adventure traveller, tramping the entire length of New Zealand, sailing around the UK and scaling a number of volcanoes in a series of ambitious personal quests. Katrina regularly shares her travel experiences in publications like New Zealand’s Wilderness magazine and is a motivational speaker in England. She says going on any kind of big adventure is, in many ways, a “growth process”.

Katrina’s first great adventure was her spontaneous decision to relocate to the UK from Dunedin, 17 years ago. Today, she lives in Kent, where she is a freelance journalist writing mainly on medical science, new drug discoveries and the pharmaceutical industry.