Award-winning Nelson writer Rebecca Hayter is back with High Heels and Gumboots, a sharp, funny memoir about swapping city life for muddy paddocks—and learning the hard way. Inspired by her hit column, also called High Heels and Gumboots, in North & South magazine, it’s a heartwarming and brutally honest take on rural life.
With more than 30 years of writing experience—mainly focused on boats for Boating New Zealand and earning her 15 journalism awards—she made a major life change in 2015 at the age of 52, leaving Auckland for her hometown of Golden Bay. There, she purchased a 10-acre block of land. “I barely knew a chook from a duck,” she jokes. The experience inspired her sixth book.
Rebecca’s passion for writing started early. “At school, whenever there was an essay to write, I’d think, ‘Yay!’” she recalls. “But my mother always said you couldn’t make a living as a writer. Then one day I read a magazine article and thought, ‘I could do that.’” She entered a short story competition soon after and placed well. “That, to me, was the official notification: you can write.” She adds.
“As a writer, I always have words running through my head,” Rebecca says, “So I was rapt when HarperCollins approached me about a book based on High Heels and Gumboots. I thought it would be easy, but it took me a while to get the structure right. It covered seven years and many different elements - the animals, the environment through the droughts, Golden Bay’s relationship with local government and my personal realisations about myself and my reasons for returning to Golden Bay.”
Rebecca has hosted several events for High Heels and Gumboots, including a particularly meaningful private launch at Patons Rock in Tākaka. “The book is as much a product of the people at Patons Rock as it is of me,” she says. “I was very aware I’d only lived there for seven years before writing about them.” She says the Golden Bay community has been incredibly supportive.
Now based in Nelson, Rebecca splits her time between freelance journalism, working on her boat, a Franklin 925 launch, at Waikawa Marina in Picton, and cruising in the Marlborough Sounds.
She’s also looking ahead to new horizons with the upcoming completion of her first novel. “It’s something that has been 23 years in the making,” she says. “It’s about 90 percent complete, and I’d really like to finish it this year. Over the 23 years, it’s evolved much more than it would have if I had completed it earlier.”
High Heels and Gumboots, published by HarperCollins, is more than just a story about rural life—it’s about returning to your roots, healing, and finding resolution in a complex mother-daughter relationship, with themes many readers will find deeply relatable.
Available from major bookstores and www.rebeccahayter.co.nz
