Hi, I’m Maree.
I am the author of The NO Bullshit Guide to Getting Sober. I’ve written a helpful book that is evidence-based, practical, and no bullshit — if you read my book and find you’re being more honest with yourself than you’ve ever been before, great. Even better, still? You get inspired to kick about and try something different in your own life. That’s the whole point.
I began my career as a writer at Television New Zealand during the dot.com boom. My work-hard, play-even-harder lifestyle led to burnout, so I flew the coop landing in Hong Kong during its first outbreak of SARS into a sea of white masks. I hightailed it across the border into China by train and fell in love with life in Canton, and then Shanghai where I remained for five and a half years. More than twenty countries visited, a photography agency and one Danish husband later, I returned to New Zealand speaking Mandarin and Danish, which didn’t get me very far at all! I travelled for a further 5 years and when I returned to NZ to send an award-winning Parisienne Maori fashion collection down the catwalk at NZFW in 2014, I was beginning to realise that while I might be done with drinking it appeared drinking definitely wasn’t done with me! It took moving to Waiheke Island for me to reach out for help to finally knock the booze on the head. I’m happiest in or on the water, I love sailing and sailboats, especially if they are racing. I write a very popular monthly newsletter called unf*ck yourself.