Prue is a former university lecturer who came from England to teach at Victoria University and with memories of her grandfather’s place in Brighton, on the south coast of England, decided to move to Paekākāriki. She found her house in 1972 and has lived in Paekākāriki ever since, sharing it with her partner Pat Rosier until Pat’s death in 2014.
“I just wanted to have a house by the beach and this was the first proper beach out of Wellington. The beach and the swimming and all that are what brought me here but the people are terrific, it’s a lovely little village – I call it the lesbian and cultural capital of the universe – culturally it’s amazing how much literature and art and painting and music there is. I don’t go to everything as much as I used to but I love it and I would hate to live anywhere else. Even though my house is too big for me I couldn’t bear to leave it.”