Chelsea Winter's 'My family blessings!'

This festive season is extra-special for beloved cook Chelsea as she prepares for a beachside celebration with her two young sons, and a New Year filled with exciting new ventures to nourish her soul.

- SOPHIE NEVILLE

Every day brings something new on the black sands of Oakura Beach - shifting skies, rolling surf and that wild Taranaki beauty that never loses its magic.

Rain or shine, you’ll usually find Chelsea Winter there, walking the waterline, untangling her thoughts and finding a quiet clarity she can’t seem to access anywhere else. It’s become an important ritual and the thread that weaves her days together.

So it’s no surprise that when she chats with The Weekly, she’s mid-walk — headphones in and soaking up the first hint of sunshine after weeks of grey.

“We’re so excited about summer,” says the Kiwi cookbook queen, who’s mum to Sky, six, and Sage, three. “The boys are nature kids — they like to be untethered and free. Especially Sky. If he could live in the ocean, he would. Or in the mud! We don’t do too well cooped up inside all winter.”

These days, balance is Chelsea’s guiding force - between motherhood and creativity. There’s a unique ease in the way Chelsea moves between deep reflection and the playful, self-deprecating humour that makes her so instantly relatable. At 41, she’s happier than ever, completely at peace with where she is in life, and positively thrilled that her latest cookbook, Nourish, rocketed to number-one bestseller across all genres, staying there for three weeks. While many women grapple with the dawn of a new decade, for Chelsea, life in her forties just keeps getting better.

“The minute I turned 40, that’s when my ‘I don’t give a damn’ era really came into play,” she laughs. “I know some people might look at me and think this or that, but I just don’t care any more. I’m here to be me, and to express who I am and what I’m doing. It's incredibly liberating to reach that point where no one else's opinion of me matters. I am so incredibly grateful to be here.”