"Mum would take us swimming at Blue Lake or Holden's Bay almost every summer night, we had the Redwoods forest as our back yard and we were outdoor urchins at a time when 'stranger danger' hadn't been heard of. We sailed on Lake Rotorua and went fishing at Lake Tarawera."
The interaction Judy had with the Maori culture through St Faiths Church and her wider whanau continues to be a strong influence and, while she admits she was a hopeless teenager - she was suspended from school at 16 - she insists that wasn't Rotorua's fault.
Education suited her better later in life.
As a journalist, she studied law "to minimise defamation risks". Judy later completed her doctorate in political communication, helping MP Annette King win the Miramar seat in the 1993 general election. She also became a professor at Massey University.
But before all that, she was the first woman in Australasia to edit a significant newspaper, leading the Auckland Star and Sunday News.
"It was lonely, tough and a roller-coaster adrenalin ride of scoops, committed and eccentric staff, hard drinking and late-night hamburgers.
"I lived and died by circulation figures.
"I was a fighter so I suppose I took the inherent sexism of the profession in my stride."
Today New Zealand media has been feminised, with the overall gender split at 54 per cent women and 46 per cent men. But she points out there is still only one woman editing a metropolitan newspaper and no female Sunday newspaper editors. "So the fight for gender equality persists."
Judy sees the greatest challenge to equality in employment in New Zealand as the "tragic loss of potential" in youth unemployment.
"Far too many of these great kids just need a chance of a first job. Many of them are sitting around home, in bad flats together or living on the margins because they don't have work."
OECD figures show young Kiwis are 3.7 times more likely to be registered as out of work than other adults and the September youth unemployment figure for the Bay of Plenty was 7.8 per cent.
"We need a national youth-to-work strategy that includes a plan for every young New Zealander. It must include Maori and Pacific young people and disabled youth."
Judy still wants to see higher wages for lower-paid jobs - filled predominantly by women - and she says raising wages is part of the answer to Kiwis jumping the ditch.
"If New Zealand was serious about the work exodus to Australia, it would tackle job creation through active and positive labour market interventions so Kiwis didn't have to leave."
In her role, she sees that even working people often struggle because of New Zealand's poor wages.
"Low pay is something governments can do something about, as they have the ability to progressively raise the minimum wage.
"But employers have to want to, and be able to, hire more staff and new staff. The incentives and conditions have to be positive for employment growth."
She believes decent, well-paid work is the strongest protection against discrimination and inequality in our communities - especially in the Bay of Plenty, which has the lowest median hourly earnings in the country at $17.90.
