A life that suits in the land of possibilities

Koru Kids chief executive Rachel Carrell with children Naomi Easton Carrell (now 5) and Alexander...
Koru Kids chief executive Rachel Carrell with children Naomi Easton Carrell (now 5) and Alexander Easton Carrell (now 2) in London. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
From the South to ... anywhere, really. In a brief series, we track down people who were raised or educated here and are now doing something interesting overseas. Today, we feature Rachel Carrell, who runs the Koru Kids child-care business in England. Hayden Meikle gets in touch with her for a chat.

Q. Where do you live?

I live in a leafy part of North London, one of the only hilly bits of the city. It’s about 200m from a tube station, and then about 20 minutes into central London. It’s very green around here with several parks and woods. Very near our house is Queen’s Wood, which is an ancient wood. Coming from New Zealand, I struggled to know what that meant. Isn’t all native bush ancient? But just about every single metre of England has been altered by humans over the millennia so it is actually quite meaningful to have 20ha that has some sort of ancient pedigree.

Q. How long have you been there and what do you like about it?

I first moved to England in 2002, when I came over to live in Oxford for a couple of years to do my master’s degree. I was on a Rhodes scholarship and fully intended to go home after my two years. But I loved Oxford so much, and was having an amazing time there. I had the chance to extend my scholarship for two years and do a doctorate, so I did that. Then I got a job, again just for two years. I kept on just doing the next thing and the next thing, and now, 17 years later, I have an English husband and two English kids.

My three favourite things about England: the supermarkets are wonderful, the pubs are cosy, and the newspapers are about an inch thick. And for a bonus (but this is kind of a subpoint under supermarket), the cheese is spectacular. Even the lowliest, tiniest little Sainsbury’s will carry three or four amazing cheeses. As for London itself, my favourite thing is that the choice of everything is so immense here. You can really create the life that suits you. Everything is possible.

Q. What do you do for a job?

I set up my own business three years ago, Koru Kids. We’re trying to build a much better child-care system. We’ve got about 100 employees now and each day over 1000 of our nannies pick up children from schools across London and take them home. I called my company Koru Kids because I loved the idea of the koru symbolising the way children unfurl before us. My daughter’s middle name is Fern, so it felt right.

Q. What is the appeal of your job?

I like a challenge! I’ve always really wanted to build my own business, and its always been very important to me that it have a clear social mission. I know how stressful and difficult modern life is for families and I decided to make it my life's work to helping parents. Having small kids and holding down a job is just so tough. I'm living the issues at the same time as trying to solve the issues for everyone else. I find it really motivating.

Q. Career or life highlight? Events that shaped your life?

I have two ‘‘sliding doors’’ moments, where my life would have been totally different if the moment had gone slightly differently. The first was when I won my scholarship to come over here in 2002. That was an incredible opportunity and the single event that has most shaped my life. The second was when I got my first job, which turned out to be where I met my husband. I remember when I got that job offer, I was so overwhelmed with joy that I couldn’t function. I went to go and buy a lottery ticket to get myself back on a more even emotional plain, and then I scratched the card and won! I had to go back and buy another one so that I lost, and that brought me down to earth enough that I could function and get home.

Q. Outside work, what do you like to do?

Mostly what I get up to outside of work involves my family. There’s so much for families to do in London. In the past couple of weeks, we’ve been to a pantomime, gone skiing on an indoor field, taken a family parkour class, performed in a ukulele concert and gone trampolining.

Q. Favourite country visited?

So many favourites! In my single days, I travelled a lot. Not so much any more. North Korea was the most politically fascinating. Zimbabwe was the most economically fascinating. Cuba was the most socially fascinating. Italy was the most delicious. Iceland was the coolest.

One memorable trip was with my mum to Syria for a week. This was before the war, obviously — around 2008. We travelled to Aleppo and Palmyra, two places that have subsequently been very heavily bombed. The people were very friendly and kind, and the ancient ruins of Palmyra were unforgettable. It was a gut-punch hearing one day that many of those ruins no longer exist.

Q. Where are you from originally?

I’m originally from Invercargill. I grew up there my whole life and went to Otago University. I loved my time in Invercargill and at Otago. I especially loved student life at Otago. I loved the wide-open possibilities, loved learning stuff, loved flatting culture. I have so many great memories of doing ridiculous stuff. Dares, pranks, that sort of thing. We were idiots very frequently. My flatmates put 2kg of onions in my bed once. I don’t remember why and I don’t think there was a reason at the time, either. One time we ate nothing but pizza for about two weeks after we figured out how we could get free pizza vouchers. I remember eating chalk and cheese one night for some reason, and one birthday dinner where the poor birthday boy was dared to eat an entire bottle of hot chilli sauce (he did it, then vomited). At one of our flat-warmings, two guys turned up naked and stood around in our living room all night like they hadn’t realised. So many stories like that. And then all of that is interspersed with memories of living on almost no money whatsoever. Our food budget was $20 per person per week in 2001. We used to have arguments about whether fruit was a luxury. We saved money by not using heating. We used to watch TV in our sleeping bags. One winter, it was so cold in our flat that our olive oil solidified. I’d be curious to know how many of these things are still relevant today.

Q. Where will you be in five years?

I’d love to say I’ll be in New Zealand! Realistically, in five years I’ll probably still be running Koru Kids. We do come back to New Zealand every year, though. That’s really important to me, to keep a strong link. I miss New Zealand a lot, even after all these years. I get really emotional when the plane lands, every time.

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