New Rotorua mother excited to celebrate Mothers' Day

Rotorua's Adrienne Whitewood with her 9-week-old daughter Harete Mical Mitai-Ngatai. Photo / Stephen Parker

A new Rotorua mother is excited to be celebrating Mother's Day and "the best job in the world".

Rotorua fashion designer Adrienne Whitewood will be celebrating her first Mothers' Day as mum to 9-week-old Harete Mical Mitai-Ngatai.

"I will be celebrating it with my mother and family, having a whānau dinner out, and hopefully getting gifts from my husband," she joked.

"I've found being a mother really is the best job in the world. It's challenging, but every day is a commitment to her spiritual and physical wellbeing."

Whitewood said one highlight was being able to talk about her experience of being a new mother at the Four Mothers, Four Stories event yesterdayat Artisan Cafe.

It is a fundraising event for Whitinga Harris, a trainee teacher who collapsed last year at Western Heights Primary School during the final weeks of his teacher training.

The much-loved new teacher was to start his first job at the school this year but instead he's fighting stage four colon cancer that has spread to his stomach.

"Steve Chadwick and my aunty were two of the speakers.

"I really want to share just how important it is to listen to your own intuition. There were a lot of times during my pregnancy that things didn't seem quite right.

"Because I was new to this whole journey I didn't get second opinions. Now I've learnt to question everything and always seek out more advice on absolutely everything to do with you and your baby's health."

She said one thing she had really appreciated about her parents was, from a young age, they always prayed together.

"My mother said a family that prays together stays together, so that's what me and my husband do with Harete.

"I've also learnt to take care with the words we speak over her. We always encourage her and uplift her, and tell her she's blessed and only surround her with positive people, and she responds to it and I know it does her well."

Whitewood said her favourite thing about being a mother was the fact that she could be with her every single day.

"I design from home now and she's inspired a whole new print series I'll be launching next month so I can't wait to get that out, and I love to show her that you can do anything you put your mind to."

Meanwhile, Living Colour Florist owner Nina Healey said they had been busy in the lead up to Mothers' Day.

She said it was the natural thing that most people chose to send their mothers flowers and they were a gift people could always give again.

"We make them as beautiful as we can with the flowers seasonally available."

She said generally people picked flowers bright and colourful or soft and pastel, whichever suited the personality of the mother.

Healey said the shop also stocked plants which they had been selling a lot of too.

Em's Flowergirl Florist and Giftware owner Emily Stevens said orders had been coming in strongly for the day from all over.

She said orders for nice and cheerful flowers were the most common for Mothers' Day.

Stevens said the flowers had been sparse and hard to get this year, and she encouraged people to get in quick over the weekend.