Lulu Sun drops to her knees. It’s a classic pose for an exhausted tennis player at the end of a hard match, but she is not on court.
She’s looking at tiny, white alpine flowers clustered above the cold bushline in Fiordland, having tramped up, through thick forest and without a track, to get here.
"Look Mary," she exclaims in her sing-song, low voice. "It’s miniature fairy land!"
I drop down beside her and discuss the tenacity of small plants in harsh environments. It is an intimate moment, noticing and appreciating the little things in life.
Fascinated Lulu, who is now the fascination of New Zealand sports fans, was in her early teens at the time, and I was her bush guide, getting to know her devoted family on long tramps. They are passionate about the Fiordland wilderness and have regularly spent time on their grandmother’s Fiordland farm, where Lulu was born.
Roll on to 2024 and Lulu is now dressed in white, like the flowers of Fiordland, and achieving a stratospheric rise in another notoriously harsh environment — professional tennis.
I had the pleasure of interviewing her in London by video call yesterday. She was in recovery after slamming her way to the Wimbledon quarterfinal. I asked how she was doing after such an incredible performance and with the Olympics coming up. Her answer demonstrated she is still the same humble and focused human.
"I’m trying to recover a bit. It has been progress and a stepping stone, and I am in awe of all the support I am getting."
I ask Lulu if she thinks of Fiordland as her spiritual home, and she doesn’t hesitate when answering.
"Yes. I adore it. If I could transport myself I would be there every day and then come back to wherever I am. It is definitely a special place and people around the world should be able to experience this luxury — this different type of luxury — that a lot of places do not have."
Our tramps together were never luxurious in the traditional sense. Carrying our backpacks, we battled through deep, thick forests, waded through mud and across rivers, slogged up and down mountains and slept under the stars and sometimes in the pouring rain.
Lulu enthusiastically recalls "fixing up tents, eating out of small pots and using moss as toilet paper". We laugh about the dig-a-hole-for-yourself toilets, but Lulu knows it was much more than that.
"Walking up mountains and hiking with backpacks gave me an understanding of endurance. The long distance helps with cardio and is generally good for your health — but being with nature, friends and family all makes the experience extra special."
"Whether an athlete or not, it’s good to have a healthy body."
It’s typical Lulu to think about place, her people and everyone else too — and to devote herself to what she is doing, whether it is tennis, tramping or admiring tiny flowers. She is an all-in kind of human, who goes for it — whatever it is — in her own quiet way.
"I guess I have good concentration when I really enjoy something and have particular interest in something — whether it is nature, tennis, drawing or reading," she says.
"Once I have started I finish the job. I think, because I enjoy the sport [tennis], and enjoy competing, it helps me to focus a bit more than on something I don’t enjoy as much."
Having succeeded so well on Wimbledon’s grass courts, she speaks with enjoyment about adapting her game to terrain and also to conditions such as wind or sun in your eye.
"That adaptability is really, really cool. Tennis is a game but that in itself is kind of a game as well."
She laughs and comments that Fiordland is a place where you can experience rain, sun, clouds and wind — all in one day.
For Lulu, who trains for up to five hours a day, tennis is what she is doing now, not her identity. She doesn’t want to "lose herself and identify as a tennis player. Tennis is not my whole life . . . and there is more after tennis".
She reflects that her time growing up in Fiordland was "very calming . . . I am always happy to come back to the forest and be in nature again."
She also says her time at the University of Texas helped her to mature — juggling tennis, studies, life, and time to relax too. She hopes her international relations degree will give her options to do good in the world, later.
"I don’t have time to think about my life after tennis yet, but I really want to help people and nature and obviously there are a bunch of policies that can make it difficult, or help."
She comments proudly on the large amount of of conservation land in New Zealand.
For now, she is just "enjoying my career. I don’t feel stress about what I am going to do after tennis, or what if I don’t make it."
Fiordland local running legend and chair of the Fiordland Athletics Club, Dwight Grieve, has his own memories of a younger Lulu. He is known for his fast times around Fiordland’s 60km Kepler Track and helped train her on Fiordland terrains.
"Even when she was young, there was shyness but determination and zero complaining," he says.
"When she stopped, you could see she had gone beyond where other people would go — and then she would start talking and she was this shy but inquisitive person again. She had the X-factor you can see when she plays tennis — grit during the match and then interviews showing how lovely she still is."
After the Australian Open earlier this year, Lulu flew to Te Anau and took part in its 5km park run. She beat her fastest previous time.
"She couldn’t help herself but to go hard, which was awesome," he says.
"She is also really connected to here. When I mentioned we had club hoodies that said Fiordland on them, she had to have one."
I ask Lulu about doing the park run.
"It was lovely," she says, then laughs.
"I mean, the weather wasn’t, it was raining, but it was really fun."
I ask Lulu how she feels about the spotlight on her, now she has shot up the rankings.
She says she is "not used to it yet" and is also having to get used to a busier schedule. She speaks about her professional tennis like a normal person might speak about a routine work promotion.
"It is a job at the end of the day but I do appreciate it. I do feel I have progressed in some way and am super grateful."
I tell Lulu that people in Te Anau have joked there should be a permanent sign at the entrance to the small town saying ‘Welcome to Lulu land!’ A temporary sign saying "Go Lulu!’ was already erected for Wimbledon.
"What?!" proclaims Lulu, in her first outburst of the interview.
"Oh my . . . I want to thank everyone who took the time to support my matches at Wimbledon and watch. Thank you to everyone in New Zealand in the north, south, east and west."
When asked about her food when training, she admits to having bread and jam for breakfast occasionally. It is an unsurprising admission. When taking a break from squelching up a muddy slope on a tramp when younger, it was revealed extra cookies had been smuggled into the food bag.
We laughed and enjoyed them.
