Belinda spent the first part of her life with her parents (her father being a diplomat with the United Nations) living in Paris, Morocco and Mauritius before being relegated to boarding school in Melbourne. Due to her love of all things flying, she joined Air New Zealand as an international flight attendant.

However this role merely continued a lifetime of living in hotels, and she dreamed of settling on land with her dogs.

After leaving the airlines, Belinda ran Canine Behavioural Clinics in New Zealand for the RSPCA, and was kept busy making appearances on national television and radio giving talks and instructing on animal behaviour.

Again this did not come close to her dream, so after months of searching, she stumbled across a very old and dilapidated kennels/ex greyhound facility for sale on 10 acres, surrounded by stunning farmland on the scenic Mornington Peninsula.

She instantly fell in love with the countryside, but jokes she must have been on drugs when walking around the actual complex. Rats, mountains of rubbish and miles of asbestos kennels are the clearest memories of moving in day on November 1996!

I am very proud and very grateful to the amazing team here at Mornington Lodge. In my career spanning office work, the airlines and as a consultant – I have never encountered a staff as committed and willing to go the extra mile for each and every guest.

I probably do not tell them how much I value and appreciate them, and I am doing it now. I also recognise each and every client who thanks the girls for their work. Yes – they love the dogs and their work, however it is pretty cold and wet here at 6.30am mid winter … day in day out.