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award-winning journalist & author

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Leave a high profile career
on a crazy whim?

Deep down,
you know
you want to.
 

High Heels and Gumboots is the brutal, hilarious
and heart-warming reality of owning
a lifestyle block.
It's number four on NZ's best selling list for non-fiction, 26 April.

Welcome...

After 25 years of writing mainly about boats, mostly as editor of Boating New Zealand, I left Auckland for a lifestyle block in Golden Bay. I barely knew a chook from a duck, but suddenly I was writing about chickens, sheep and muddy calamities. It spawned a magazine column (Best Columnist of the Year, 2020) and my sixth book: High Heels and Gumboots (HarperCollins, 2025). 

Thanks for visiting,​

Rebecca

Wild Seas to greenland book
Oceanspirit Publishing

An attempt to sail the Northwest Passage with Whitbread veteran Ross Field. Essential reading if you're planning an offshore voyage.

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UK & Europe readers: available from Lodestarbooks.com

Adrian Hayter's sailing classic of the first solo voyage from England to New Zealand.
With an introduction by Rebecca Hayter.

Albert Strange design Sheila 2
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Bruce Trotter’s vivid storytelling and Kiwi humour takes us back to an era of Dacron, daggerboards, wooden booms and skegs – so grab your harness, hook in, and relive the magic of New Zealand's windsurfing story.

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The final book in Andrew Fagan's Swirly World trilogy in which he attempts to set a record for the smallest vessel to solo circumnavigate the world.

Oceanspirit Publishing
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Between victorious America's Cup campaigns with Team New Zealand in 1995 and 2000, Rick Dodson was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). At first, he kept it secret. As MS took effect, he embarked on a new challenge, the 2016 Paralympics.

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Des Townson yacht designs

Des Townson was a yacht designer and boat builder known for his graceful yachts and the remote-controlled Electron. His close friend Brian Peet chronicles Townson's life and design career, based on recollections with Townson and his friends and family. A stunning coffee table-style publication.

What You Wish For

In 2008, I answered an ad for an unusual writing project. Paul Blacklow had started writing his story of MND and alternative therapies but been unable to finish it before his death, aged 36. Using his notes, voice tapes, writing and interviews with family and friends, I completed his book.

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Chris Sayer had always dreamed of sailing the Vendee Globe Race, and teh stepping stone was the single handed Mini Transat 650 class.

Image by Lionello DelPiccolo

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Contact

I'd love to hear from you.

Please use this form to get in touch with questions about my books or writing projects.

E. rebeccahayter14@gmail.com

P. +64274782478

A. PO Box 830,

     NELSON 7040,

     New Zealand

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©2020 Rebecca Hayter.

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