Laura Williamson, the Southern Lakes Festival of Colour’s general manager, could be the textbook definition of a Renaissance woman: talented, educated, and knowledgeable in many different fields. She’s arty, wordy, and sporty: in fact her only failing, according to her son Liam, is “she’s not good at being tall”.

In 2017, the role of Festival of Colour general manager was up for grabs after Lindsey Schofield (the festival’s first GM) resigned. Laura had attended six festivals, every Aspiring Conversations weekend, performed at the festival (she is the co-writer, along with composer Angela Mote, of the Blue Moments song and spoken word cycle which premiered to a sold out crowd at the 2017 festival), and worked as the festival’s schools’ coordinator.

Festival director Philip Tremewan, when announcing she had secured the job, summed it up well: “Laura brings great energy, warmth, intelligence and organisational skills to this demanding role.” It was just months out from the 2018 Aspiring Conversations weekend, which went on to experience unprecedented demand for tickets.

Born in Quebec City, Canada, Laura was raised in Vancouver where her father was a criminal defence lawyer and her mother (also a lawyer) was an editor. Laura’s father was eventually a supreme court judge and her mother went on to teach judges how to write clearly.

Laura wrote from childhood; she had poems published in the newspaper when she was at primary school, and had her first poem published in an anthology during her last year at high school.

Laura with tuatara in Invercargill, while doing a travel story for Kia Ora

Laura also describes herself as “the biggest music nerd”: growing up, she negotiated a weekly allowance equivalent to the cost of an album. She wrote music and film reviews while studying at McGill University (she holds a BA (Honours) from McGill University, and an MA in History from the University of Toronto), and reviewed for the Groove Guide after she moved to New Zealand. Music writing remains her favourite freelance work. “It’s the most interesting challenge, to try to describe music with words.” Unfortunately, except for poetry, it’s also the least lucrative, she says.

Growing with a “mountain right in the middle of the city”, Laura not only became a skilled skier but a coach and instructor for Olympic track youngsters in ski racing (both in the US and New Zealand). She is an ISIA certified alpine ski instructor and coach.

Laura first visited New Zealand when she was nine (and has a clear visual memory of the confluence of the Clutha and Kawarau Rivers). New Zealand was a “beautiful, warm, happy place” she wanted to get back to, and she eventually did in 1997, at the age of 27.

After spending a few winters instructing at Mt Hutt, Laura “wanted somewhere better to live year-round than Methven” and chose Wanaka. She and her then-partner moved here in 1999, a week after the big flood. The high water mark was still visible on New World’s walls.

Laura’s first job was receptionist at Wanaka Medical Centre (“a great way to meet everyone in town”), working the late shift and weekends to make time for skiing at Treble Cone. After a few years she instructed at Cardrona, spending her summers at Park City Resort in Salt Lake City.

Meanwhile she was writing “a little bit”; op-ed pieces for the Otago Daily Times (ODT), and a film column for the Wanaka Sun called ‘The Flick Chick’. The column morphed into a regular job at the Sun, in the days when Dave Smith was editor and the three or so employees did everything, including laying out the paper. Laura’s graphic design skills (yes, more skills) were honed on the job.

Taking a break from work to have her son, Laura made a pact with herself to get something published, and achieved it with a poem about Mt Roy, which was published in the ODT. She quotes a line: “There’s a sharp line between ridge and sky, life and death, you and I.”

Laura biking the Timber Trail on the North Island.

After Liam was born Laura wanted a job she could enjoy and which would work with having a baby; she chose teaching and quickly and efficiently - the way she tackles everything - earned a post graduate diploma in teaching from Victoria University and secured a job at Mount Aspiring College, where she worked for ten years, splitting her time there with freelance writing.

She packed a lot of work into that spare time: launching and managing ON Magazine with Annabel Wilson and Bridget Hall, editing mountain bike magazine Spoke (cycling is another of Laura’s sporting skills and passions - she has also written a book about cycling), writing for the ODT, North and South magazine, Kia Ora (Air New Zealand’s inflight magazine), The Dominion Post, The Press, The Southland Times, The Melbourne Age, Theatreview, Groove Guide, Interface Magazine, Wet Ink Magazine, Mountain Biking Australia and New Zealand Ski and Snow. She also ghost wrote other people’s memoirs as a private service, and wrote part time for the Wanaka App from its launch until December 2017.

Read Laura’s Wanaka App profile of The last miner: Wattie Thompson

‘Prolific’ barely covers it, but Laura says the output was partly from financial necessity. “I’ve always needed to write a certain amount to supplement my income in order to live here.” She can quickly churn out work for magazines, but says; “The creative stuff is just an itch I need to scratch.”

Just over a year after taking on the Festival of Colour general manager role, Laura is relishing the challenges of running the festival, which she says “makes Wanaka such a special place”.

“It’s an endlessly changing job. You do accounting, sound engineering, writing, the logistics of building sites, communications with performers, staff, patrons, and the public.”

Another plus is seeing the process evolve from an idea in Philip Tremewan’s head to a full and final programme, she says. There’s also plenty of hard graft: Laura spent four months filling out funding applications. “Getting the money together to make it happen is a huge job.” And there’s always the need to “prepare for the unexpected to happen, because it totally will”.

That creative itch still needs to be scratched though, and Laura has continued to write and perform, including appearing in Tall Tales & True last August, and maintaining her creative alliance with friends and fellow poets Annabel Wilson and Liz Breslin. ‘At the drop of a hat’ is their latest collaboration: audience members drop words into a hat, which are drawn onstage by the three performers - who must then perform poems related to the word. Laura says the concept is about making things more interesting, challenging themselves, and - importantly - engaging people with poetry to “share it as widely and broadly as possible”.

She still finds the time to keep her hand in with one of the most sought-after gigs in freelance writing: travel writing for Kia Ora.

Laura lives in Luggate with Liam and a collection of vinyl records dating from the 1980s, but it’s not surprising she doesn’t often go home to just relax.

“Luggate is beautiful and peaceful and there’s an amazing community there,” she says. She should know - she’s writing a history of the area for the Luggate Community Association, and says “I have yet to find someone who lives in Luggate who isn’t completely fascinating.”

PHOTOS: Supplied