My Perfect Weekend: Fiona McLeod loves road trips on her Triumph, pottery and the beach

Fiona McLeod in her Castlecliff studio. Photo / Bevan Conley

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Fiona McLeod in her Castlecliff studio.
Photo / Bevan Conley

Every week we catch up with someone from our community so they can tell us what their perfect weekend in the region would be. This week we spoke to McLeod Pottery owner and St George's School teacher aide Fiona McLeod.

When I get some downtime, I love to ride my motorbike. It's a 2013 Triumph Bonneville. My husband has a Triumph Tiger. Twisty bits of road are better, so the Paras and National Park are always good fun. I'm riding up to Whangārei with some friends for a girls' weekend.

I arrived in New Zealand when I was 18 and started riding motorbikes then. I also took up pottery so I could make friends - and it's stuck. I started McLeod Pottery last Christmas when we moved to Whanganui from the Waikato.

I have a stall at various markets on a lot of weekends. I try to do the Whanganui River Markets fortnightly, I've got the Marton market and Palmerston North coming up and Hospice Whanganui's just before Christmas. It's pretty much markets every weekend over Christmas.

I do pottery lessons on the weekends as well as in the evenings. People can book a two-hour session - we do one hour of hand-building and one hour on the wheel (www.mcleodpottery.co.nz). That's always fun and it's interesting meeting new people. I often get family groups. It is quite popular with mums and teens, and recently I had a father and his adult daughter. I've got a tealight house-building class coming up at Space Gallery on November 12.

If I had all the time in the world, I'd go hiking. I enjoy photography too. I love the beach - that's why we moved to Castlecliff - and aim to run there at least three times a week.