The women I’ve met on this island, are probably the strongest women I’ve known anywhere.’ For Helen Highwater, the people that make up this community have been a source of inspiration since she arrived here in April 2000. “For me the Barrier has been a place of discovery about myself.”

Helen is now on her way back to the UK, having spent 27 years away and 15 of those in New Zealand. After eventful times in Australia, and further itineraries that took her to Wellsford, Leigh and Orewa, she was looking to move on from a job and situation that did not offer enough motivation. “Here, look at the newspaper,” somebody said, “There’s a job for a chef going at a place called Trillian Lodge on Great Barrier Island.” And with that her island adventure had irrevocably begun.

The way Helen described the times that followed, made clear her appreciation for what she had gained from five years on this piece of rock. “It is a very healing place - people come for a brief visit and end up staying on – be it for weeks or years – because it gives people something they need.”

When her time with Mary Haigh came to an end, she soon found herself working regularly at the Currach Pub. She became neighbour to many, living in Okupu, back in Mulberry Grove at the home of Lance Preller during his absences to Baltimore and even with Sarah Harrison.

“It wasn’t long before I was saying that I won’t ever leave.”  --- “But things change and you have to grow with life.”

It had been predicted. One day last year at the Golf Club, her hand was seized by somebody she had never met before and she was warned: “There’s a change coming! You will meet a foreigner ….” But that cliché prediction came with details about the ups and downs of her past life that were uncanny. “She was spot on about things that she could not have known!?”

Sure enough Helen indeed did meet “somebody”, and it is time to move on now. “My travels have just begun again. I just know that. Time to go and take all the good I’ve learnt here on island: Inner peace, creativity, ability to connect with people, the mental and emotional support we learn to give each other, seeing the positive in life.”

“Great Barrier Island has taught me to look at myself. Maybe it is the setting, the beauty of this island, the power it has. I have been given a gift – I am sure of that. I’ll go away from here a better person.”