Please help send Arabella to Italy!

Hi everyone,

Arabella's been accepted onto a 5-month exchange to Italy, leaving January 2027. It’s an incredible opportunity, and we're asking friends and family if you'd help her get there.

A bit about us: Arabella just turned 16, Year 11 at Thames High. When she was 6, Sarah became seriously unwell with a rare genetic condition, EDS. With no public healthcare support and lifelong costs ahead, we simplified everything and sold up, moved into a caravan, and settled off-grid on a Coromandel property, where we still live today.

It hasn't been easy, but Arabella's grown brave, resilient and endlessly adaptable — never complaining, whether it's baking a cake on the BBQ, a 7am outdoor shower in 2 degrees, or running the generator to dry her hair.

She’s a talented artist (First Junior in Subject at Thames High last year), and grew up buried in National Geographic magazines so Italy's history, architecture and culture just makes sense. Living with a host family and going to school in another language will be the experience of a lifetime — anyone who knows Arabella knows she'll make the most of it.

What we can't easily cover is the cost. Between fees, flights and a visa it adds up fast. Arabella's already earned $4500 of the deposit herself working at the dairy and takeaways, and she'll keep working until departure — but it's tight.

Any amount, big or small, means the world and gets her one step closer. Thank you for being part of our village.

With love, The King family