Contact Details
Ph: +64 4 385 8047
Cell: +64 21 158 2816
heather@kiwitravelwriter.com
RSS Syndication
Travel Tips...
What Topic This Week? Unfortunately, many times as I sit to compose this weekly column I doubt I have the discipline, guts or talent to do so.
Why does it always have to be on a travel-related topic? (Because it's on the travel pages Heather). Why can't I just write about what I think about the world? (Why should anyone be interested in what you think about the state of the world?) Why is it so hard for an opinionated woman like me to think of a topic week after week, month after month? (Who knows? Who cares how hard it is for you?)
Such are my thoughts as I sit at the computer contemplating a blank screen. I am not a disciplined person. I find it difficult to remember to take medication when it's been prescribed. I just don't do routine...
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Heather Hapeta . . .
She's a 5th-generation Kiwi, of Scottish, Irish, Cornish, and English descent (all arriving in NZ between 1862 -1873)
"I feel so alive when I'm travelling" Heather says. She particularly loves South East Asia and also says, "I'm willing to take risks, and travelling alone, means I've discovered the world is full of wonderful people and places".
Her insatiable curiosity and spontaneity ensures that even when she's feeling overwhelmed by new experiences and struggling with language barriers, she tries to remain calm on the outside even while huge unknown fears fly around inside.
Heather has travelled in about 40 countries and has had in excess of 250 articles published in various magazines and newspapers including: Morning Calm (Korean Air's in-flight magazine), Sydney Morning Herald, Australia & New Zealand (UK travel magazine), South China Morning Post, as well as in New Zealand newspapers and publications such as the prestigious NZ Listener, and Four Corners website.
Tutoring in travel writing, Heather is also a popular speaker with her talks having names such as Conversations with a Passionate Nomad or Running Away from Home, as well as about specific events or countries.
Two of her short stories have been selected for anthologies. ‘Up North’ in Home: new short short stories by New Zealand Writers (Random) in 2005, ‘Memories from the Cradle of my Ancestors’ features in Land very fertile, Banks peninsula in poetry and prose (CUP 2008). Banks Peninsular is the nearly-French settlement on New Zealand's South Islands’ east coast. Two of her poems have been published in the Christchurch Press - a covereted placing as only one poem is published weekly.
Heather has had a colourful life, has reinvented herself a few times and has worked in, nursing, real estate, modelling; has been a waitress on a Malaysian beach, an alcohol and drug counsellor, and even managed a cattle farm for three months.
Heather was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, is a widow with two children who have inherited her wanderlust. Check out her book Naked in Budapest: travels with a passionate nomad that tells the story of her running away from home at fifty, travelling solo for a year with no plans.
In summary, Heather is a writer who loves to travel and lives in New Zealand's capital city Wellington.
As well as her travel pieces, she has written a small book about the suicide of her youngest child, Gregory. Click here to read & purchase an e-copy.
She is a member of TRAVCOM (NZ Travel Comunicators) and the New Zealand Society of Authors.