Fiona Hayvice is a self-confessed ultra marathon junkie, and maintains a whole-food diet and balanced lifestyle to support this.
Fiona Hayvice is a self-confessed ultra marathon junkie, and maintains a whole-food diet and balanced lifestyle to support this.
In order to rack up the high mileage (100-150km per week) needed for racing ultras, she travels by foot (mostly running) at every opportunity. Aside from training Fiona’s days are spent managing YOYO from home (alongside her husband Todd a.k.a Mr YOYO) while being the principal carer of their three-year-old son.
Fiona says, “Returning to New Zealand, after a number of years working abroad, Mr YOYO and I were perturbed that Kiwi design was not being spunout on its own shores. The off shoot was YOYO; a retail platform that champions quality Kiwi-designed furniture, homeware and lighting.”
Fiona lives with Todd and three-year-old Spike in an ex factory, two-level apartment within walking distance of everything they need. The family rarely use their car and love the fact they predominantly support local.
The Hayvice’s apartment is the first home they (and now Spike) have shared. Hence, it's filled with an amalgamation of furniture and homeware, mainly pieces they have inherited. Since joining forces, the couple has purchased a number of artworks - many of them whilst exploring foreign shores - to adorn their walls. In the future they intend to build a standalone home; it will be influenced by the modernist movement, with a splash of fun. “Kiwi design, of course.”
Fiona says, “In a past life (approximately 15 years ago - pre living abroad, meeting Mr YOYO, embarking in business and having a child) I was a greater Ponsonby resident. Today I reside mostly in Wellington, commuting to Ponsonby regularly to oversee our Auckland showroom. Time spent in Auckland is primarily for business, although we have the bonus of mixing it up with family time, with a lot of them residing in central Auckland.”
FIona’s favourite room is her living room - a space that comprises kitchen, dining and lounge. “We spend the majority of our home-time in our living room,” she says.
Cooking, wining and dining, socialising, planning for the next big ultra event, reading, listening to vinyl, constructing buildings, boats and train-tracks (all of the miniature / toy variety of course!), and running a small business inevitably means working at the dining table (late nights and over breakfast!), business meetings in person and over Skype.
The living room is her favourite because it’s the biggest space in her home; the family can all be in there together engaging in different activities, yet still feels like they are in their own zones.
Her favourite things in the room are the artworks that she and Todd have purchased together. “Each of them has history for us,” Fiona says, “like our two Rona Green pieces; Lady (the butterfly chested cat) was a gift from my father to mark our wedding, and Dutch (the masked rabbit) was the first piece we bought together.”
Fiona is also very found of the extensive vinyl collection that is a mash-up of the couple’s pasts and the present. She says, “Spike’s taste is starting to feature now too. Our living room is a bit of a musical shrine with a piano inherited from Mr YOYO's family and an electric drum kit from his past life. I enjoy listening to Spike experimenting with these and other instruments, secretly hoping he'll be more musically apt than me.”
YOYO FURNITURE DESIGN, 24A Williamson Avenue, T: 09 376 4884, www.yoyo.co.nz