NADIA'S family finally reunited

‘I savour every micro moment’

As her family rallies around, the celebrity chef talks to writer Emma Clifton about her biggest challenge yet, being on the brink of burnout and the life lessons that tragedy has taught her.

Nadia Lim is worried about the approaching winter. Unusually so. As co-boss of the sprawling 485-hectare Royalburn Station, which has 32 staff, 4000 lambs, almost 8000 chickens and literally millions of bees, there is always a degree of apprehension about the dramatic dip in temperatures.

But this season has brought with it some more new arrivals – her mother Julie and her sister Jasmin have just moved from Auckland to their new house in Otago, which they’ll share with Jasmin’s husband Roman and their two young children. And that first South Island winter, Nadia says, is “a real shock to the system”.

This big move down south had been just a whisper of a dream plan for all three women over many years. But in the end, the ball started rolling very quickly in late 2023. Now, after almost five years of living apart from her mum and sister, Nadia is just 15 minutes away from them.

This will be the first Mother’s Day with all three of them living in Arrowtown and the excitement at this new adventure is palpable – even if Nadia, 38, has put the fear of God into them about what to expect from a southern winter.

“I’ve tried to warn them – I’ve probably scared them a bit, actually,” laughs Nadia, sitting in the cosy kitchen of her picturesque rural property. “But it’s best to underpromise and hopefully overdeliver!”