Tell me a little about your backstory and how you arrived in Woy Woy?

 My partner John and I were living in the Cook Islands and very broke. We scraped together enough money to get plane tickets back to Australia, on the plane I discovered I was pregnant because I was very sick. We flew via New Zealand and borrowed $400 from my mum and then flew here with that $400 - and pregnant…I had grown up between the Cook Islands and New Zealand but John and I both had been in Australia previously. I love Australia, just absolutely love this country. Every time I go somewhere I really look forward to coming back. 

How was that first week in Australia with only $400? 

It was very stressful, really, really stressful. We drove - I don’t know how we got a car - but we drove from Queensland to Woy Woy to stay with John’s parents. My partner John couldn’t work at first, he was a seafarer, he had to borrow money from his brother to join the union to be able to work because you couldn’t work on the ships without the union membership. So we found ourselves in a little bit of debt.

You’ve now spent the majority of your life in Woy Woy. What kept you in the area all these years? 

My son, I thought it was a great area for him to grow up in, you’ve got waterways, you’ve got so much nature out there. One of his favourite things was hiking through the bush and the mountains. So he kept us here for a while and because I hadn’t been in one place my whole life and neither had John we wanted to give him that sense of home and place…It took me at least six years to get used to being in one spot.

What inspired the idea to become a cafe owner in Woy Woy? 

I wanted good coffee, I had seen how the cafe scene had changed and we always thought if we opened a cafe and no-one came then at least we would have good coffee. This corner in Woy Woy looked very different. There were shops here but they weren’t open as such, the whole corner was dirty, it had bottles in the garden and there were trolleys left out the front there so it just looked like a wasteland, there was nothing inviting on this corner. 

You must have seen some opportunity in that rather forgotten corner to decide to open a cafe there? 

I could see opportunity, the courtyard was very warm and in winter it is sheltered from the wind, so it was a great spot to have coffee and from a business perspective the actual street is a high traffic area. It was tough in the beginning because it was a big change for the area and obviously some people are sometimes skeptical of change but that all changed over time. 

How is your relationship with the local community now? 

The community is really behind us and the people we do have as regulars are very supportive, they really like what we do and we get so many compliments now. It has come a long way since we first opened.

What advice would you give to new business owners about to start their small business journey? 

If you have an idea and think you know what you are doing and it is set out clearly and you know things should be a certain way - stick with it. Do not change things because people come in and say ‘we don’t like that’ or ‘that’s not the way you should do it’. When you start off you are insecure, you don’t know if you are doing the right thing and it may not be instantly successful, it takes time. But if you stick to what you are doing and what you believe in you will be fine. 

Do you believe in luck? 

As far as business goes I would say you create 90% of it yourself. The other percentage is the things that happen that you can’t control, the good luck and the bad luck, for example covid is one of those things.

What do you hope to see for Woy Woy in the future? 

I want the young people to take over from me and put a newer and contemporary spin on everything in this town. I would like to see that creativity expressed here. I think around here has that little village charm but is a great mix of old and new interests and it also has so much potential moving forward… I would love to see this part of Woy Woy take inspiration from Melbourne, with the street art, lots of shops and cafes, a hub where you want to go out for dinner. You could come here and just have choices, a fun and interesting precinct that has a lot to offer. You’ve already got the ferries, the trains, the buses and everything you need to create that hub.