The Hits: Celebrating 10 years in Hawke’s Bay

The Hits DJ Megan Banks.

It’s birthday month for our family as we celebrate our Hawke’s Bay birthday! We’ve been lucky enough to live in this amazing region for 10 years now.

When we first moved here, we had a 9-month-old baby boy and my boyfriend (now husband) had finished work filming on TV shows in Auckland. My work contract had also finished with TVNZ 7 after the station finished broadcasting. So we were left in our little apartment in Freemans’ Bay, with no work and a little baby, wondering what the heck to do next.

Ben’s parents said, “Why don’t you come to the Bay for a bit while you get back on your feet and sort out your options? You can always go back to Auckland when you need to, but in the meantime, you can stay in our holiday cottage on Links Road.”

Little did we know, after we packed up our worldly possessions and made the mighty trip down in our wee Toyota Runx, this little interlude in life would end up becoming our life.

I had only been to Hawke’s Bay twice before. I knew of the amazing horticulture, agriculture and viticulture, but I had no idea of the meatball culture. That was truly something unique and amazing about this place.

Slowly but surely the days turned into weeks, the weeks turned into months, and the months into years.

We bought our first home together in Greenmeadows, added another baby, a cat and a dog, and we even got married!

And through all of the years and the hard grind that working and family life can be sometimes, I’ve always been grateful we are doing all of this in a pretty cool place.

I’ve loved having family and friends come and visit and showing off this beautiful region. Whether it’s taking them to a Mission Concert, or having a malted milk icecream from Rush Munro’s on a hot Hawke’s Bay summer’s day, there are so many memories that I hold dear.

And now after being completely devastated in the floods, that beautiful Olive Grove cottage where we started our Hawke’s Bay adventure is being rebuilt along with their family home, so Ben’s parents can start to look to the future again.

It’s been a hell of a year, but we’re pretty happy with that news as we celebrate our 10-year Hawke’s Bay birthday and look forward to many more.