NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Kapiti News

Lockdown turns actuary Nicolla Eagar into poet

Rosalie Willis
By Rosalie Willis
Multimedia journalist·Kapiti News·
18 Nov, 2020 06:30 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Nicolla Eagar with her children and newly released poetry book Taking It to the Next Level - Poetry In Lockdown. Photo / Rosalie Willis

Nicolla Eagar with her children and newly released poetry book Taking It to the Next Level - Poetry In Lockdown. Photo / Rosalie Willis

Dealing with numbers for her day job, Nicolla Eagar found herself entrenched with the opposite during lockdown.

During the Covid-19 lockdown Nicolla found herself writing poetry, completing poems reflecting her observations around what was happening each day.

She has since curated them into a book of 100 poems with profit from the sales going to the Mental Health Foundation and Pukerua Bay School.

Working in an actuarial team, dealing with insurance and maths for her day job, Nicolla never expected to have rhymes and poems coming to her at all times of the day during levels 3 and 4.

"I don't know why I wrote these poems," Nicolla said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"I did a maths degree, I normally work with numbers.

"Covid-19 did some weird things to all of us, and for me this is what happened.

"It was such a challenging time and you needed a way to process it - for me this helped, getting my thoughts on to paper.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Don't ask me why it came out in poems, but it did.

"It was one, sometimes two, sometimes three poems per day.

"I would go for a run but would have to stop because I had all these poems coming into my head and I had to write them down on my phone.

"Either that or I would be doing the dishes and have to stop because they kept coming to me."

Discover more

Metlink fares set to increase

01 Nov 08:14 PM

Raumati Village: It's party time!

12 Nov 06:30 PM

Kāpiti midwife awarded for outstanding contribution

16 Nov 06:30 PM

Leveraging the experiences of lockdown

15 Nov 08:14 PM

The poems reflected the logistics of working parents at home with young children, toilet paper shortage, the daily updates and the escapades of our politicians.

"A lot of the stories relate to our family and what was going on which I think is probably reflective of a whole lot of families.

"We have three kids and two working parents.

"The poems came from the joys of juggling all that and trying to find stuff for the kids to do."

Other stories include the grocery hoarding at the start, the money and wage subsidy from the government and people's feelings about it.

Posting them on to Facebook for the community to enjoy, people started suggesting to Nicolla that she create a book with them all together.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

But she wanted to take it one step further so she included pictures that added meaning to the poems and the involvement of the whole community.

"The pictures were not about works of art, but about adding greater depth to the poems."

It was about getting the community involved and continuing with the strong community feel that the Covid-19 lockdown created.

"It wasn't about it being a work of art but about relating to the poem."

Keen to share the poems with others, Nicolla has curated them into a book called Taking It to the Next Level - Poetry in Lockdown.

"I think my books will serve both as a reminder of lockdown, resonating with people and also with Christmas looming, hopefully they will be quite appealing to people.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"I feel like even though I've written them relating to my family, a lot of these poems will relate to most New Zealanders."

The books are on sale at Paper Plus Coastlands or from Nicolla at poetryinlockdown@gmail.com, $25 each or $45 for two, with profits going to the Mental Health Foundation and Pukerua Bay School.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Kapiti News

Kapiti News

Mumpreneur revolutionises property management

15 Dec 11:30 PM
Kapiti News

Kāpiti news in brief: Award-winning nature photo features rare bird nesting

12 Dec 10:48 PM
Kapiti News

Beloved Paraparaumu College teachers bid farewell after long service

11 Dec 10:15 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Kapiti News

Mumpreneur revolutionises property management

Mumpreneur revolutionises property management

15 Dec 11:30 PM

How Chelsea Gill created a family-friendly business.

Kāpiti news in brief: Award-winning nature photo features rare bird nesting

Kāpiti news in brief: Award-winning nature photo features rare bird nesting

12 Dec 10:48 PM
Beloved Paraparaumu College teachers bid farewell after long service

Beloved Paraparaumu College teachers bid farewell after long service

11 Dec 10:15 PM
FreedomLife Te Nikau celebrates 25 years of transforming lives

FreedomLife Te Nikau celebrates 25 years of transforming lives

10 Dec 10:47 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP