Liz van der Laarse

For the first 21 years of her life Liz was known as Elizabeth Beer. She was born in Palmerston North in 1952, the third of four children. She spent her early childhood in the Manawatu township of Shannon, where her father was the secretary of the local dairy company. She enjoyed being part of a small community and although she was only eight when she left Shannon, she knew that she wanted to live her life in the country.

During the rest of her childhood and teenage years she lived with her family in Kohimarama, Auckland. She was educated at St. Thomas’s Primary School, Selwyn College and the University of Auckland, where she gained a BA in social sciences.

Remembering her primary school days as fun days and eager to leave the city, she trained as a primary teacher at Auckland College of Education. She picked up her Dutch surname when she married her husband, Max. Together they moved north in 1975 where they taught at Kaeo for a year and enjoyed the warmth of the people, the climate and beaches of Northland.

After a year touring Europe in a VW Kombi they returned to Northland, this time to Kaitaia, where their elder daughter, Amy, was born. They moved from Kaitaia to the tiny North Hokianga town of Broadwood. In its isolation they found a life style that was friendly and supportive, and they stayed for eight years, adding another daughter, Meg, to their family. With friends, they bought a block of bush covered hill country in Peria, where they built hippy homes and lived each summer for 15 years.

In 1986 they built their present home in native bush, on the side of a headland overlooking Doubtless Bay. Max and Liz have taught at Taipa Area School since then. Their hippy block has been sold. They are now planting a new property in olives and natives. It too, overlooks the sea and in a few years they will build and move there.

Selected bibliography:

• Trouble Patch (Reed 2000).
• Not Even (Reed 2002).