Authors

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Melissa Hori is one of the authors of When Sex Is Not Enough. A lifelong educator, she has been a tutor, a dance teacher at her own Dance School, and a Secondary School Science teacher. She is now a Pilates and barre instructor, and an award winning workplace literacy and numeracy trainer. She received her Bachelor of Science and Post Grad Diploma in Secondary Teaching from the University of Auckland. She never thought about being a writer, but when her fertility struggles began she became frustrated at not being able to find a book that was personal, authentic and that she felt connected to. She decided this was a book that needed to be written in the hopes that it could be that resource for someone else. Melissa pulled together her two friends, who were also in the fertility battle and in May 2018 the plan was made. A South Auckland born and raised woman, she is a lover of Pilates, rescue dogs, Whittaker's chocolate, most sport, being at the beach with a good book, and being with her whanau and friends. Stephanie Larnder is a born and bred South Auckland woman with a desire to help others through her own experiences. This began after completing her Business Studies where she started her career in Finance where her economic savviness allowed her to help customers achieve their financial goals before moving onto different management roles in Marketing and Sales. This has continued with fundraising activities, support groups and now with this book which she hopes will provide comfort or guidance to whoever reads it. She has a huge love for animals, and as a Taurus she loves being outdoors in nature. Discovering new places and cultures has led her curiosity all over the world with extensive travel. She lives an active lifestyle, loves coffee, upcycling DIY projects and caring for the environment. Family is incredibly important to her and who she spends most of her time with. She is a huge believer that if you can be anything in this world, then be kind and hopes to encourage others to live by the same principles. Simone Fernandes was born and grew up in South Africa, and moved to New Zealand in 2009 with her family and partner (now husband) to start a new life. With a Bachelor of Communications (majoring in Public Relations), Simone took to a career in Marketing and specialised in copy and content writing. Struggling for many years with infertility, Simone was thrilled to co-write her first book with two friends, with the vision of helping empower and inspire others experiencing similar fertility struggles. She loves animals, going to the gym (her happy place) to weight-train, spending time with loved ones, swimming in the ocean, watching Formula 1 racing, and reading a good paperback book - Nora Roberts is one of her favourite authors. When she gets the opportunity, she loves to travel and discover new places, admiring the various architecture and the history that she learns along the way.

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Rebecca Larsen writes books for adults and children. Her most notable works are a series of sing-along picture books set to the tunes of popular nursery rhymes, and based on the main characters of a pukeko, kiwi and hoiho. Her other picture books include Tane Mahuta Has a Forest and Twinkle Twinkle Matariki.

Wilma spent the first half of her life in Italy. Her school education started with Grammar School and ended with a Maths degree. She worked in the private sector then moved to teaching Maths at public schools, while moonlighting with feminist theatre. She spent a few years in Japan, following the work of her then partner, now husband. After a short interlude in Italy, where their only daughter was born, in 1996 they moved to Christchurch, New Zealand, and started a vineyard and winery business. Wilma’s activities expanded to voluntary work: radio, a TV cooking series, a festival, coaching the opera chorus, events of all kinds, and the Dante Alighieri Society, for which she started the Christchurch Language School. Besides working as the Marketing Manager for the family wine business, she taught Italian for Musicians at the Canterbury University, and Italian language and cooking at evening classes. In 2018 the couple retired to Auckland, where eventually this book was completed. Wilma received from the Italian Government a civil knighthood, the “Star of the Italian Solidarity”, for her activity as a journalist and teacher, and a gold medal from the Dante Alighieri headquarters.

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Stephen Lasham has been a resident in Onehunga for the past 25 years, living in Quadrant Road and having a close connection to the Manukau Harbour through his 15 years of involvement as a leader at Aotea Sea Scouts. Here he introduced his three children to Scouting, became a leader and joined the group’s committee. It was through the Sea Scouts that his interest in the Onehunga Foreshore history was piqued. Due to the actions of the New Zealand Transport Agency in relation to the East West Link project, he took on the task of building the Sea Scouts’ case in opposition to the radical changes proposed around the Sea Scout building on Orpheus Drive. The main area of concern was the proposed changes to Gloucester Park which would have undoubtably ended the Sea Scouts’ ability to run their program at their hall and would have prevented future utilisation of the park area used for their activities. The resulting investigation led the author to join The Onehunga Enhancement Society (TOES), and the Manukau Harbour Restoration Society (MHRS). Through the encouragement of Jim Jackson, the then chairman of both these groups, the author become involved with the Community Plan campaign promoting a better alternative solution to that proposed by the NZTA. It led the author to the discovery that the Unitary Plan had blocked TOES desired future restoration of the foreshore between Taumanu Reserve and the Port of Onehunga with the introduction of the Outstanding Natural Feature (ONF), designation placed on Gloucester Park and more importantly, its foreshore. Researching for Aotea Sea Scouts’ objection to the East West Link also meant delving back into the group’s history, something that was recorded in minutes, old letters, and log books held by the group, along with other sources. The group has a long history of dealing with the various transport agencies throughout its existence. This is another fascinating work as yet waiting to be published, adding to the Scouting history of Onehunga since Scouting started in New Zealand in 1908. Researching for both these projects highlighted to the author just how radically the foreshores of Onehunga had been changed. Many publications touch the surface of this subject, and many in recent times; the subject was of vital significance to the NZTA in developing their analyses for the East West Link project and prior projects relating to State Highway 20. This work hopefully goes some way to illustrating the changes, highlighting just how much change has taken place and how much damage has been done. The author acknowledges that Onehunga has other stories, and hopes he has not strayed too much into others’ territories, but hopes through your reading of this work that you will now have a better understanding and maybe join the cause for further restoring the lost foreshores of Onehunga and improving the quality of the Manukau Harbour as a whole.

A researcher and social commentator, Celia Lashlie worked for 15 years within the prison service, starting in December 1985 as the first woman to work as a prison officer in a male prison in New Zealand. Celia, who had a degree in anthropology and Māori, went on to work on a number of projects, all of which were linked to improving the lives of at-risk children and empowering families to find their own solutions to the challenges they were facing.

Photography took a serious turn for Peter Latham me in 1989, when he packed so much camera equipment onto the back of his bike, he could barely lift it! He pedalled his way around the South Island for six months and dreamed of being a landscape photographer, then travelled the world as a photographer aboard cruise ships. A photographer's exhibition in Alaska wowed him so much that when he returned home to N.Z. in 2003, Peter began to trial printing onto canvas. Printer technology was advancing rapidly at that time and both the results and response he got from those early canvas prints was very encouraging. He developed an audience for his work through a network of art galleries and suddenly found himself very busy, having discovered his niche. LOOKING FOR THE LIGHT his first book was published ny New Holland Publishers in 2017 and this set a high standard. It was so well received that Peter believed any future title must exceed it. After many missions to capture the images for a new book and a mammoth self-publishing project which involved 1000 hours of design, writing, editing, proofing and more editing, Peter is proud to finally present LAND OF LIGHT.

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