Spend an hour in Anna Mowbray’s company and I guarantee that you will come away energised and, more importantly, especially in these uncertain times, optimistic. Her cup-half-full mentality is contagious.
“Mum and Dad instilled into us the need to be positive and to thrive in change – to always have a smile on your face,” she grins. “Nobody wants a buzzkill in the room!”
The recently crowned New Zealand Entrepreneur of the Year is one of the three dynamic Mowbray siblings who own and run the multimillion-dollar Zuru toy empire.
Anna greets me with a broad smile at the door of the new home she shares with her partner, former All Black rugby star Ali Williams. Actually, it’s not a new home – it needs work, she insists, but it sits on a stunning piece of land. The front lawn rolls away past an ancient pohutukawa to the waters of the Waitemata, sparkling on this sunny spring day.
The house is modern and sparsely furnished. “Who knew there was a 15-week wait when you ordered new furniture?” she shrugs.
Anna has been living in Asia, where Zuru is based, for the past 15 years. Firstly in China and then for the past two years in Hong Kong. She and her three children, Kalani, eight, Maile, seven, and Kaleo, three, arrived home in Aotearoa in February during the Chinese New Year celebrations.
And then came the COVID-19 lockdown. The family was stranded and couldn’t return to Hong Kong. In June, Anna made the decision to relocate more permanently, not knowing how quickly the world would open up again.
Bu hikaye Australian Women’s Weekly NZ dergisinin December 2020 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Australian Women’s Weekly NZ dergisinin December 2020 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
PRETTY WOMAN
Dial up the joy with a mood-boosting self-care session done in the privacy of your own home. It’s a blissful way to banish the winter blues.
Hitting a nerve
Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes could aid physical and mental wellbeing.
The unseen Rovals
Candid, behind the scenes and neverbefore-seen images of the royal family have been released for a new exhibition.
Great read
In novels and life - there's power in the words left unsaid.
Winter dinner winners
Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of budget-concious recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.
Winter baking with apples and pears
Celebrate the season of apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the cold weather blues away.
The wines and lines mums
Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.
Former ballerina'sBATTLE with BODY IMAGE
Auckland author Sacha Jones reveals how dancing led her to develop an eating disorder and why she's now on a mission to educate other women.
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.
IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START
Responsible for keeping the likes of Jane Fonda and Jamie Lee Curtis in shape, Malin Svensson is on a mission to motivate those in midlife to move more.
