Why we shoot 500 before breakfast.

The third time I dropped Hunter at LAX, I almost didn't get out of the car. Not because I didn't want to let him go — because I wanted to remember exactly what it felt like to be the mother who didn't have to yet.

People ask how we do it. How you put a sixteen-year-old on a plane to the other side of the world and drive home to Pāpātoetoe and make dinner like the house isn't quieter. The honest answer is you don't get used to it. You just get better at the goodbye.

Ko te whānau te mauri. The family is the life force. We say it so often it's almost wallpaper — until you're standing at a departure gate and it's the only thing holding you up.

So this is the column. The 5am thoughts, the packing lists, the wins and the bits nobody photographs. Written from the kitchen table, mostly. Haere mai — welcome to the Diaries.