Broadcaster & gardener KARA'S PLOT THICKENS!

The down-to-earth media personality explains why she changed her life

- Kasia De Vydt-Jillings

After two decades in Auckland building a celebrated career in radio and television, Kara Rickard could no longer ignore the pull of her hometown calling her back.

Initially, she thought returning to her ancestral lands in coastal Waikato town Raglan would mean turning her back on her successful media career to focus on whānau.

“When we went to move home, people were like, ‘But you’ve built this amazing career — why would you throw it away?’” recalls mother of three Kara, 44.

“But I thought, ‘I’m happy if I end up working at the Raglan Four Square. I’ve spent 20 years doing real cool stuff, and what’s important now is being home and with my kids.' Staying in the media wasn’t on my mind.”

Instead, Kara’s found the best of both worlds, embracing work projects like hosting Whakaata Māori series Once Were Gardeners and RNZ show Music 101, while also reconnecting deeply with her community.

“In Auckland, I couldn’t go to town in gumboots and pyjamas, but I probably would in Raglan,” she laughs. “There’s no sense of me having to look or be a certain way. I’m more settled here.”

Her children, Haea o te Rangi, 14, Kaihu, 12, and Iver, eight, play touch rugby on the same team as their cousins, train at the karate dojo her dad Pablo Rickard has run for the past 40 years and even go to the same school Kara attended.