Kia ora, I'm Hannah.  I love being outdoors. 

I am curious, hopeful, a champion of quieter voices and a natural born connector.  As well as connecting people to each other, I also care deeply about connecting people to the natural world - and making those connections deeper.

I am an Edmund Hillary Fellow, an Associate with Toi Āria and Pocketknife and I host occasional Wellington Unchatter events. I am fascinated by connectedness, connectivity and connectorship and the role connection - the ‘invisible in-between’ - plays in our efforts to make the world a better place. I am particularly passionate about my evolving role at Wellington’s remarkable eco-sanctuary Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne where I lead tours, and design new experiences. For me, there is nowhere else like it for feeling inspired and hopeful.

My approach to experience design and facilitation is creative, dynamic and always place-based.  I believe where you are affects how you are.  And how you are affects everything else.  My speciality is working with people in natural environments.  

My story

Ko Tangata Tiriti ahau.  Born and raised in London, my ancestors are Welsh and English.  My entanglement with Aotearoa began in the 1980s when my sister was born.  Her mother is from the Wairarapa and she grew up in Te Whanganui a Tara Wellington. I first visited in 1997 when I was 18. I fell in love with place and people, and now the city is my home too.

I’ve always been a curious soul. I studied languages, history and politics at Trinity College, Dublin and spent a year living in Belarus learning Russian.  I taught English in Poland for a while, and ran a successful second-hand bookshop for Oxfam GB.  A strong social conscience led me deeper into the world of social enterprise: setting up the UK division of American social business Better World Books and a few years working with other socially minded start ups. I wrote a Masters thesis that questioned society’s fascination with ‘heroic’ social entrepreneurs - and I explored the role of culture, collaboration and relationships in change-making in New Zealand, Vanuatu and Rarotonga with a Winston Churchill Fellowship.  

I realised that a better world is not just about innovative business models, but about human relationships too. I trained as a coach with the Coaches Training Institute, explored eco-therapy at Schumacher College and developed my creative facilitation practice with Partners for Youth Empowerment, Zenergy, CRR Global and GreaterThan.  Drawn to working in outdoors spaces, I also developed skills in nature-based work with the Natural Change Foundation, Wildwise, and whilst adventuring with Outward Bound. Pre-COVID, I was an international Associate with the Social Enterprise Academy, working with the British Council on life skills and social enterprise education programmes in Europe, the Middle East, South East Asia and South Korea.  

Now I am fully grounded in Aotearoa New Zealand. I am a graduate of the New Zealand Leadership Programme and I volunteer with the Wellington Emergency Response Team and Conservation Volunteers NZ.  I am an active learner of te reo Māori, love bush walks, ocean swims, excellent novels and my worm farm.