The Devonport Flagstaff Page 23
March 10, 2017 documents via teletext. “It was a real eye-opener. One minute I would be driving the van to the airport to pick up carpets, having customs inspect them; next minute I was in the office, next minute I was modelling clothes for their fashion design,” she says. In 1979, McEwen headed to London for her OE. She started out temping and got her foot in the door at an advertising company. She eventually became a production assistant on TV and radio ads before moving into film production. “In the 1980s, advertising was great, with legendary long lunches, big budgets and people like the British comedy duo Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones doing voice-overs,” she says. In 1987, McEwen returned to New Zealand and moved into the hospitality industry, opening Lakeside Café in Taupo together with her first husband, a Dane she had met in London. “It was just when cappuccino machines came into New Zealand. There were no flat whites yet, no Eftpos machines. It was a long time before Eggs Benedict, but we were one of the first cafes to do a cooked breakfast,” she says. Once again, she came in green. “It cracks me up now because I had absolutely no cooking experience. As a 20-year-old in London, I had lived on Marks and Spencers.” In 1991, McEwen and her husband split up and she moved to Auckland to help run Cin Cin on Quay, a restaurant located in the old ferry building. “It was THE restaurant in the 1990s, the first to open really late and be a place to be seen. [Broadcaster] Peter Sinclair was there every night after his radio show and brought his guests along. He virtually lived at Cin Cin,” she says. McEwen was in charge of bringing in international chefs, who would cook for a special weekly menu at the restaurant. “Once we had this amazing chef couple from Chicago doing gels and mousses, putting them on a plate like a painter’s palette. Everyone does gels and mousses now, but back then it was really new,” she says.
In 1992, she met future husband John McEwen, who lived on Huia St. They moved in together and still there live today. After a brief stint working for the Restaurant Association of New Zealand, McEwen moved her professional life to Devonport. In 1997, she became the event organiser of the then fledgling Devonport Food & Wine Festival. A year later, daughter Mia was born but McEwen managed to juggle work and motherhood with ease. “I did one festival before Mia arrived, and then I would just always bring her along with me to them,” she says. McEwen ran the food and wine festival for seven years, until 2003. “Again it was early days for that sort of thing. Now there are festivals everywhere, but there weren’t all that many back then,” she says.
“Put me under pressure and I excel. If I have too much time, I start procrastinating.” The festival took off under her management, which was a mixed blessing, she admits. “I took it from a relatively small event and made it incredibly successful financially. But the locals hated it, especially when we put the pricing up, when the 20-somethings started to come and finally the fencing went up,” she says. McEwen also ran her own business, Wedding Planners, which specialised in highend marquee weddings held at unusual venues. “I did that for a few years until I got sick of brides and talking about flowers.”
When Mia started school, McEwen was voted onto the Stanley Bay School board, followed by the Belmont Intermediate School board and finally the board at Takapuna Grammar School. “And in between I worked for the Ministry of Education on a project called Extending High Standards across Schools (EHSAS), gathering a cluster of Devonport peninsula schools and sharing ideas and best practices, a bit like today’s Community of Learning,” she says. In 2012 and 2014, McEwen embarked on her “foray into the arts world” when she became the event organiser for NZ Sculpture OnShore, New Zealand’s largest outdoor sculpture exhibition, held at Fort Takapuna every other year. In her private life, McEwen is as committed to making a difference as she is in her professional life. Today, she volunteers on the board of NZ Epilepsy Assist Dogs Trust. It all started with walking a local dog. “I have always been a big walker and always wanted a dog and one day I was in the supermarket and saw a notice that a local couple that had split up were looking for someone to walk their Labrador Fitz. I walked this dog for years,” says McEwen. After Fitz passed away, McEwen read about a local girl with severe epilepsy whose dog needed walking. “So I signed on the roster to walk her Epilepsy Assist dog Holly and slowly got involved with the trust,” she says. McEwen has since fostered seven dogs for the trust. As with guide dogs, not all dogs are suited to the job, which is why the McEwen ended up adopting Vegas, a ‘failed’ Epilepsy Assist Dog. “She was too big and too free-spirited to be appropriate. We don’t like her name but she is a gorgeous dog,” she says. In her spare time, McEwen says she does “nothing exotic”, just walking Vegas and Holly, biking, Pilates and reading. How does she find any free time in her busy life? “Basically, there isn’t much. I am definitely not a book-a-week person. When I hit the sack, sometimes I can only do a page or two,” she says.
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