“I Haven't Had The Life I Planned”

She’s colourful, outspoken and fearless – and living an international life that is as vibrant as she is. So what’s her secret? New Zealand food celebrity Peta Mathias talks to Emma Clifton about fearlessness, turning 70 and finding the life you are meant to live.

Sitting in the lounge of Peta Mathias’ Auckland home is somehow both peaceful and invigorating. Despite it being a rented property – she sold her house in Ponsonby to help fund the one she built in France – it looks exactly as you would imagine a Peta Mathias home to look. Colour, colour, everywhere, as far as the eye can see. There’s a pink patterned couch, a squashy turquoise floral armchair, art on the walls, and beloved knick-knacks from her many years of many travels line the tops of bookcases.

Displaying her chosen outfits from her wardrobe for her Australian Women’s Weekly cover shoot, there is an embarrassment of riches to pick from. Peta knows fashion just as well as she knows food. She has an entire shed full of designer clothes she’s collected over the years, but she’s been back in the country for less than 24 hours on the day of the shoot so the clothes she has to pick from are all from her latest trip to India. This is not a hardship: there are gossamer-light silk dresses featuring intricate hand-crafted details, and a collection of jewellery that manages to be both beautiful and totally bonkers. It’s a good life, you have to think, being Peta Mathias.

It is also an entirely different life from the one she thought she would have.

Peta has written, she guesses, about 14 books over the years and she also maintains a blog on her website, where she writes about the three best topics there are to write about: travel, food, love. A quote from the American mythologist and writer Joseph Campbell pops up in her work every so often, and it’s a goody: “We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”