Summer lovin’ celebs WHERE WE FIND OUR HOLIDAY MAGIC

In New Zealand, we’re lucky to have such beautiful places to spend our down time. Five favourite faces explain what summer means to them and where they’ll be spending their vacations New Zealand Woman’s Weekly

Barbara Kendall Olympic windsurfing champion & company director

One place you can be guaranteed to find Barbara Kendall during the summer is in the ocean. “For me, summer is about being anywhere near the beach and being able to play in the ocean. Preferably with good waves!” she says.

“Hopefully, we can get away on our boat, and meet up with our friends and family on their boats out on the Hauraki Gulf. We’ll go diving, windsurfing, surfing and foiling.”

The Olympic gold medallist, 54, says she’s happy wherever she is in the summer, as long as it includes four essential ingredients. “Living very simply, barbecues at night, playing in the ocean and with good company, telling stories around the campfire.”

She says if she only had a few days for her holiday, she would fly to Great Barrier Island, and get straight into camping, tramping and surfing.

And if it rains, she is quite happy to put on her raincoat, go dance in the rain and walk through the bush.

“Summer, for me, is all about freedom, nature, adventure, po¯hutukawa trees, sun, sand, salt, family, friends, boats, surf, fishing, diving, exploring and laughter,” she enthuses.

Barbara can remember as a child going to sleep when she was tired and waking up when she was ready, then putting on her togs and being in them all day.

“We would play in, on and around the ocean, then a fish would be smoked on the beach after a good day’s fishing,” she recalls.

Barbara’s New Year’s resolution is to focus on her health and wellbeing, which is “very relevant for my golden years!”

And this year, she is looking forward to reaching some significant targets for the company she directs.

Arria is a software business that transforms structured data into natural language through algorithms and modelling.

“I’m really looking forward to that.”

‘Time with wh¯anau is rare and precious, and I’ll make the most of it’

Marama Davidson Co-leader of the Green Party

Atrip north to the Hokianga is usually on the cards for Marama Davidson, 47, and her family for the summer holidays, but this year, she may stay home in Auckland.

“I always try to take the wh¯anau to my homeland in the Hokianga to unplug. It’s a very rural, isolated and beautiful tu¯rangawaewae, and we get to reconnect with nature and our whakapapa,” explains Marama.

“But it is also at risk of Covid-19 in terms of lower vaccination rates, poorer housing conditions, the normal health accessibility issues in rural areas and a high prevalence of health-compromised wh¯anau. So, my first priority will be to keep them safe and not create unnecessary travel or burden on their infrastructure.”

Marama, whose second mokopuna Ariya arrived just in time for Christmas, says it’s another reason to stay in the City of Sails.

“I may want to just relish my time with my loved ones at home over summer,” she shares. “Time with wh¯anau is rare and precious, and I’ll make the most of it wherever we are able to spend it.”

The one thing Marama plans to do no matter where she ends up is to do “absolutely nothing!”

“Doing nothing is such a treat. Sleeping, reading a book, swimming, eating. Easy, low-key things.”

Her favourite childhood summer memory is of being in the Hokianga with wild nature everywhere.

“The fact they are my whakapapa means my descendants and I also belong to those rivers, mountains and seas.”

The other aim

Marama has for summer is sleeping.

“I’m starting to see my own pattern here,” she laughs. “I also enjoy catching up with my parents and my siblings, and their tamariki.

And lots of yummy eating and barbecues at home. Nature always – sea, river, bush – all of it.”

Marama says she stopped making New Year’s resolutions decades ago, but she does try to set goals for the year ahead. “They’re always aroha-driven: aroha to the planet, aroha to the wh¯anau, aroha in my mahi for the people.”