Finding Freedom From Guilt

Miriama Smith is a small-town girl with a big-city acting career who is finding balance in both. The 800 Words actress talks to Emma Clifton about taking chances, fighting self-judgement and being a survivor.

- Emma Clifton

After making a life-changing decision, there comes a time when you are shown whether you made the right call or not. For 800 Words actress Miriama Smith, the proof came in a common, but horrible, package: a classic Auckland traffic jam.

Miriama, her husband Dylan Marychurch and their five-year-old son Rauaroha had made the move away from the big smoke in 2014 after realising that between jobs and life admin, they were spending half their day just trying to get to each other. So they moved to Katikati, and then to Waihi Beach. But because Miriama’s job is Auckland-centric, she was aware she would have to commute back up. On the day of her Australian Women’s Weekly photoshoot, she did her normal heading-to-Auckland routine: woke up at 4am, showered, and got in the car to begin the two-hour drive. She hit the Bombay Hills – the area that marks the end of the Waikato and the start of Auckland – at 5.30am. “I was high fiving myself: ‘I’ll be able to go to the gym, get a few things done.’” Not so fast. One big car accident had blocked the entire motorway. And so it was that Miriama turned up to the photoshoot at 10am after around six hours of sitting in traffic – yet somehow still in good spirits. “The average Aucklander spends 80 hours a year getting somewhere,” she recites. “That’s two weeks of your life.” She’s never felt better about the decision to move. “Time is the new currency.”

The importance of whanau