TURIA PITT 'I JUST NEEDED A LIFE RESET'

The busy mum of two relocated to Byron Bay and put in the work to be her happiest self

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It’s a beautiful spring morning in Byron Bay and Turia Pitt has just dropped her young boys, seven-year-old Hakavai and five-year-old Rahiti at their school, only a few minutes’ bike ride from the place they've happily called home since February this year.

“We came up here for the winter holidays and we were like, let's just move here,” Turia tells Woman’s Day of leaving Ulladulla, where she and her husband, Michael Hoskin, grew up. “Let’s have a go, and if we don’t like it we can go back to Ulladulla with our tail between our legs.”

TOUGH TIME

That hasn’t happened, but not just because of the “great weather, great people” and idyllic scenery in the popular beachside town on the far north coast of NSW. While the boys have settled into their school community and extracurricular activities, and Michael's keeping busy in his role as a helicopter pilot, Turia has also been putting in the work to make sure she wasn’t the same “really depressed” person, just in a different place.

“We've really liked it [here], but I've also changed,” the 38-year-old says over a coffee at Crystalbrook Byron. “I've been kinder to myself this year with parenting and not putting that unnecessary pressure on myself, particularly when Michael's gone [for work]. We don’t have any family up here so it’s hard with both of us working, but I’m also not expecting myself to do everything and do everything really well.”

This is a big thing for Turia to say, having come out the other side of a tough few years, which saw her delve into depression and reach burnout from the mental load of parenting and general life stress.

It started with a reluctant move to Cairns when her sons were two and four, followed by a move back to Ulladulla, and in between all of that, she was overwhelmed from trying to do it all - working, solo parenting, social obligations - until she came to the realisation that something simply had to give.