Surprisingly even though I’ve developed It’s My Turn to Cook Tonight I’m not an aspiring chef.  I love food but, probably like you, I’ve always got heaps of other things to do – so whatever I do has to taste great without much effort!

I’m 17 years old, live in Tauranga, New Zealand with my parents and two brothers – one older, one younger. I go to school and am studying general subjects like Economics, Mathematics, Geography and English. My favourite is speech and drama – I love public speaking –  I’ve added a You Tube of a speech competition I was in last year ago to honor New Zealanders who fought in WWII. Next year I am going to university in Auckland and i am going to study Law and Economics – very exciting!

For those of you who don’t know, New Zealand at the bottom of the world –sort of next door to Australia. We are pretty small with a population of only 4 million people. We are a sport mad nation, home to the All Blacks – rugby champions of the world (sometimes!), the place where they filmed Lord of the Rings movies and the place that ‘invented’ bungee jumping. New Zealand  is really beautiful with lots of beaches, lakes, mountains and bubbling hot mud pools.  Oh and we grow really nice food!

Like most New Zealanders, I love sport. My favourite sports are hockey and tennis – I play and coach both.

I sponsor two children one in Zambia and one in Ethiopia. Part of my motivation to write these books is that I want to make a difference in third world countries so I use part of the proceeds from my books to help others. Check out the great work of Child Fund!

I have pasted my two speeches for National Bank RSA Cyril Bassett VC Speech Competition here – two years in a row I made the national finals – never quite took out the big title … but that is life!!