Jules the labradoodle spends time with Emily in the garden. Photo / Tania Whyte
Former lawyer Emily Henderson is six months into her job as Whangārei MP. She talks to reporter Jenny Ling about life outside of politics and court rooms.
There is a unique phenomenon called a "cousin rampage" happening at Emily Henderson's house right now.
It's a frequent occurrence, the Whangārei MP says, which coincides with the school holidays and entails her numerous nephews and nieces descending on her house to catch up with her own four children.
Dr Henderson is from a big family and they're all really close.
Her parents live on a lifestyle block in Kauri and she has five siblings; three sisters and two brothers, who between them have 14 kids.
"They have a lovely time together; the kids love it," she said.
"We just had an Easter where we had 11 of them with mum and dad in Thames. These holidays I think we'll have all the kids in one place.
"But I don't have as much downtime these days, so they get really cross that there are not as many get-togethers as there used to be."
That's because Henderson has been super busy since she became MP of the Whangārei electorate at last October's general election.
When we speak, the 48-year-old is making a cup of obligatory tea at the Bank St office she shares with Labour colleague, Te Tai Tokerau MP Kelvin Davis.
She prefers quantities of camellia sinensis over coffee any day.
"I'm not just a tea drinker, I'm a complete addict. Other than that, I'm fine."
Later in the interview, Henderson admits having a healthy obsession with gardening too.
It has got to the point where, upon entering a gardening shop or nursery, her kids will eventually have to drag her away.
Henderson has big ambitions to plant a forest filled with natives and exotics on the 2.8ha lifestyle block in Maungatapere she shares with her husband, Thomas Biss.
A self-confessed farm girl, Henderson clearly loves animals, though this doesn't extend to goats and cows.
"I grew up on an overgrown lifestyle block.
"I spent my childhood on the back of a pony chasing goats up hills as they escaped. No goats will ever, ever cross my property."
However, Henderson does have a lot of four-legged and feathered friends.
She "made the mistake" of getting a pet lamb who thinks she's a horse.
They also have two scruffy ponies; Al, who is retired, and Chester ,who is "naughty but very sweet".
Their dog Jules, a needy labradoodle who is also quite scruffy, features frequently on Henderson's Facebook page, accompanying her in the garden and on fitness training runs.
She also has chickens, a couple of cats, two budgies, and a guinea pig called Greg.
"It's pretty absorbing," she admits.
"There's always something else to do."
Born in Wellington, Henderson moved to Whangārei with her parents and five siblings when she was seven.
She attended Kaurihohore Primary, Whangārei Intermediate and Tikipunga High School before heading to the big smoke.
At the University of Auckland, she completed a law degree followed by a PhD in criminal evidence law and theory at Cambridge in the UK.
Until she was elected as a member of Parliament, she worked as a consultant at the Whangārei law firm Henderson Reeves, which her father Stuart co-founded.
Henderson's legal area of specialty is the family court, and she was also involved in criminal justice reforms during a career that spanned 25 years.
In 2015 she received the International Investigative Interviewing Research Group Academic Excellence award for her work towards improving the way courts handle vulnerable defendants and witnesses.
Henderson, a former Crown prosecutor, achieved the award on the back of a New Zealand Law Foundation research fellowship which led to her writing eight major papers examining the way vulnerable people are dealt with in court.
In between, she had four children - three sons and a daughter, who are now aged 20, 17, 16 and 14.
The eldest has flown the nest to Dunedin and is studying English and history at the University of Otago.
Any downtime is spent with her children and husband who she met at law school and is a commercial solicitor and partner at her dad's law firm.
The pair wed during a "weather bomb situation" at her parents' farm in 1999.
"We had this lovely summer wedding planned in a marquee in a paddock and there was absolutely torrential rain.
"But it was a lovely wedding and it all worked.
"I hooked my wedding dress up over my arm, threw my shoes off, and danced in the wet grass and mud.
"They say rain on a wedding day is good luck, so we had a lot of good luck on that day."
The family enjoy tramping; they walked the Queen Charlotte track in the Marlborough Sounds in January, which was "utterly beautiful".
Henderson credits her parents for a wonderful childhood.
With her mum a family therapist and her dad a criminal lawyer, discussions around the breakfast and dinner table often turned to social issues and social justice.
She also grew up on Margaret Mahy stories and had many adventures in the bush.
She recalls one incident where the giant centipedes she captured and placed in a bucket escaped overnight in the living room.
"It was lots of books, ideas and chasing goats on ponies.
"And constant stories. I was a very lucky child.
"My kids get the same thing but with added political argument and lots of discussions."
Henderson has always been a lawyer, apart from a part-time cleaning job while studying at university.
"Mainly I was extremely poor. I led the student life of a nerdy bookworm," she said.
"It revolved around intense discussions about philosophy and literature. I was a total nerd."
She believes she is still pretty geeky, a trait largely inspired by being interested in ideas and people.
"I'm just a nerd who has realised that she's also quite social and enjoys people."
She enjoys reading, currently lots of academic papers and policy, while "trying to upskill in all areas I feel like I don't know enough".
She also indulges in a few escapist detective novels picked up from the Wellington airport bookshop.
Would Henderson call herself introverted?
She is uncomfortable with the label, but neither is she extrovert, preferring to sit somewhere in the middle.
"I never know where to put myself on those things.
"On one hand, I'm happy in my own company and doing academic work, spending long days alone, and that's fine by me.
"On the other hand, I love being around people.
"If I'm tired before my clinics and long days in Parliament and I go into a meeting, it's such a buzz. I get such energy dealing with people and their problems and ideas."
Henderson is still a little shocked at being elected on October 17, ahead of National's Dr Shane Reti by the slimmest of margins.
Though Reti was initially ahead by a 164-vote lead, once the special votes were counted Henderson had 17,823 votes, compared to Reti's 17,392, for a 431-vote majority.
"Initially it was a shock because we didn't expect to win.
"We didn't have enough money to do polls or anything like that. We had no idea the tide had turned the way it did."
Henderson had actually been approached to stand as the Labour Party candidate in 2017 but turned it down because her children were too young.
Six months into her role Henderson has her systems in place, she is familiarised with her new routine and is getting "stuck into the work".
She is in Wellington from Monday to Thursday night, three weeks out of four, with two weeks of every school holiday spent in her constituency.
While in the capital she shares a flat with Northland MP Willow-Jean Prime in the historic suburb of Thorndon, which is within walking distance to the Parliament buildings including the Beehive.
She said she doesn't miss her lawyer consultancy work because her new role is surprisingly similar.
"What I'm doing has got all the good bits of family law but also the ability to make long-term systemic changes.
"This feels like being a lawyer but I've got a city for a client and I'm advocating for them.
"I absolutely love it. It's a huge challenge and a huge privilege."
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