Loving my Lockwood
Research chemist Suki Harding loves being surrounded by the ma¯nuka trees that make her company’s products cherished.
Research chemist Suki Harding works from home in Titirangi – surrounded by the native ma¯ nuka trees that have made her company’s products internationally sought after.
Harding is a director and head of research and development for Manuka Bioscience, a company that makes skincare products and therapeutics from East Cape ma¯ nuka leaf oil. She lives with husband Tim, three maine coon cats and a cairn terrier dog in a Lockwood home in Auckland’s west.
Dr Suki Harding:
I always wanted a Lockwood house. In the 70s and 80s they used to run their ads on TV and I thought then as a child that I wanted to have one, one day. I love the wood look – it’s calm, serene.
It was a family home for me and my then husband and two boys, now aged 30 and 24. They grew up here so it’s a very special home as far as I’m concerned.
Photography is one of my hobbies and the photos are taken by me. Some I took in Sri Lanka when we lived there for two-and-a-half years.
We were working there and supporting an orphanage. The little boy in the red shirt is one of the orphans we still support at the Sri Jinananda Children’s Home in Colombo.
The orphanage has 70 boys aged between 3 and 18 years. There isn’t a lot of social welfare in Sri Lanka, so there’s a big population of underprivileged children, with parents who either died, have gone to prison or gone overseas to work. They are really well looked after. They all go to school. In this place in particular, the woman who volunteers there is like a mum to all of them.
It’s nice to do something to support children who are so badly off and don’t have parents to look after them.
The Buddha is from Sri Lanka. Both my husband and I are Buddhist and it’s lovely to have such a large statue. We do meditate every day, but not actually there, usually in the family area.
It’s really a great way of being clear in
your mind and connecting with the present moment, to let go of all the thoughts that are burdensome and achieve clarity of mind.
I was born Buddhist: I came to New Zealand in 1974 at the age of 10. My husband Tim has been a Buddhist for 10 years. I gave him a book about Buddhism so he could understand my philosophy of life, and he thought: ‘‘This is what sits well with me.’’
I work from home. Quite often I have meetings here. People do like to get out of the office and come here because it’s so quiet and peaceful. This room has a bush outlook on one side and sea on the other.
The beach is a stone’s throw away. We walk there every single day to walk Bear [the dog]. It’s quite therapeutic, especially as I’m working inside most of the day.
We have one mother cat, Ayla, and her two babies Lily and Rosie, all maine coons. They are more like dogs – expressive, they follow you around. They’re big – about 6-anda-half kilograms, lovely personality.
People think Titirangi is really far away from the city but it’s not; it’s only 25 minutes away.
At the front of this house there’s a huge po¯ hutukawa tree that people reckon is 100 years old. The property is 3150 square metres and a lot of the bush is ma¯ nuka and ka¯ nuka.
I can tell the difference between them since working for the company. I’ve always loved them but since working for Manuka Bioscience, I’ve also come to appreciate their properties.