Helen MacFarlane. Photo / Ben Fraser.
She's been a military diplomat's wife, fashion designer, chef, interior decorator, tutor, now Helen Macfarlane's a published online author.
But don't search for the Macfarlane name on Amazon - go to Poppy Mann.
It's the pen name she chose for her first novel, The Night of the Moonflower, a combination of romance, revenge and political intrigue with a soldier of fortune at its core.
The setting's Indonesia in the 1970s, an era the author bonds with. Her late husband, Don Macfarlane, was New Zealand's military attache during that volatile period in his host country's history; it was to protect him from possible reprisals, even so far down the track, that Helen chose the pseudonym.
The name's a tribute to her maternal grandfather Mann, known to his family as Poppy.
Another significant factor influenced the choice; for 18 years the Macfarlanes ran Poppy's Villa, Rotorua's first fine dining restaurant, its name saluted their favourite Bali eating place during their Indonesian years.
With Poppy Mann unmasked, explanations given, we turn to this woman who's creative to the core, has a comedienne's humour and whose general knowledge makes her a formidable quiz team opponent. We speak from personal experience, who else knows who created condensed milk and the year? For trivia purists the answers are Gail Borden circa 1853.
Australian-born, Helen's been 'Kiwified' since her marriage at 21 to the young soldier from Rotorua who rose to the rank of colonel.
Their first meeting's one the writer in her couldn't have scripted; he was on stage wearing a dress.
Aware a friend was introducing him to a blind date, the would-be Romeo eyed up a likely suspect, dropping an ice cube down her back - ooops, wrong woman.
Helen forgave him when it dawned he was the bloke who'd piqued her interest at a Melbourne New Year's Eve party.
"There were these two guys in black blazers with silver ferns singing, I asked about them, they were at the nearby signals camp, one was Don. I said 'mmmmm. I just might go to New Zealand one day'."
She did, lured by a high-end fashion firm to Wellington from Melbourne where she'd been designing for the Sportsgirl range.
Within six months she'd wed the black blazered, dress-wearing Don Macfarlane in a marriage that broke army protocol. Shortly after their engagement the bridegroom-to-be was appointed ADC to army Chief of Staff, Sir Leonard Thornton, a post that traditionally went to a single man. Helen quickly learnt why.
"I had to watch him go out virtually every night with ambassadors' daughters on his arm."
The couple married at St Faith's.
Their's was no bog-standard wedding; there was a military guard of honour and two receptions, the first in the Soundshell, another straight after at Whakarewarewa.
"Don's father, Harold, was big in Whaka affairs, Guide Rangi and a group of village ladies came to his parents' house and speaking in Maori insisted we had to have a reception there too."
Helen was pregnant with the couple's second son when her husband was seconded to the British army in Singapore.
"Those were amazing times, still echoes of the Raj; Raffles Hotel was full of remittance men in starched bloomers, women in ball gowns smelling of mothballs, mice running around the floor as we danced."
Despite having an Australian army major for a father, the reality of life as a military wife set in when her husband was sent to fight Communist insurgents on the Thai border. His wife filled her time weighing babies at the military's equivalent of Plunket.
"I'll never forget the woman with 'mild' tattooed on one boob, `bitter' on the other."
From steamy Singapore it was back to icy Waiouru where their daughter was born. Don headed the signals school but being the early 1970s Vietnam service was inevitable.
"There was so much secrecy officers' wives didn't know when they were going, they just didn't come home one night."
With the Indonesian defence attache posting Helen was absorbed into the diplomatic high life.
"Sometimes there'd be four cocktail parties a night, heaps of functions during the day."
But it wasn't all play - she taught English to Indonesians, she'd learnt their language from a French cookery tutor.
Cooking was becoming increasingly important to her, spending three months in Paris studying at the La Varenne cookery school.
There've been other courses in Italy, Australia and New Orleans. "I was a hobby cook, didn't want to be a professional but ended up one."
Indonesia was followed by Wellington, Helen made desserts for dinner parties and sold pates. When the peripatetic army life took them to Papakura, an Auckland deli recruited her, Harrods came calling.
"I was asked to export to them and the East Coast of America but the timing was wrong, Don was retiring from the army, coming back to Rotorua, so I sold them my recipes."
With Poppy's established Helen became Solitaire Lodge's in-house chef. Its demanding, high-end guests failed to faze her, she'd already spent time at Muriaroha, an Old Taupo Rd retreat for the rich and famous.
Always one with an eye for colour, her interior design skills were given reign at Poppy's. Diners commissioned her to 'do' their homes, she gave Solitaire a makeover, was invited south as a consultant for the exclusive Nugget Point Lodge.
She's run culinary classes in her kitchen, taught cooking at Rotorua Lakes High, spent 15 years "on and off" tutoring at Waiariki's fashion school and written food columns for magazines and newspapers, The Rotorua Weekender included.
So how come the novel?
"I've always written novels, short stories for pleasure, started Moonflower about 15 years ago, became serous about it when I realised I was nearly 70, that it was now or never."
Mainsteam publishers were encouraging but failed to pick up the manuscript. Undaunted, Helen recruited locally-based online specialists, Plaistead Publishing.
"It's very satisfying it's finally off the ground and, yes, a lot of it's based on my experiences as a diplomatic military wife but its romantic intrigue's strictly fiction."
HELEN MACFARLANE
Born: Melbourne, 1941.
Education: Ivanhoe and Fairfield Primaries, Coburg High, Melbourne Institute of Technology fashion school.
Family: Widow, two sons, one daughter, eight grandchildren.
Interests: Family, writing; she completed Moonflower's sequel this week. Cooking, crochet, knitting, movies, "good" television, history, reading "I love biographies, thrillers". Member U3A book and art history groups.
What next? "A ghost story of sorts set in Melbourne in the 1940s and present time."
Dream dinner guests: Naturist David Attenborough, ocean explorer Bob Ballard, singer Isabella Mariani, Donald Trump "for pure entertainment value".
Personal philosophy: "Make the most of the life you've been given."