13/06/2026
I've noticed a few thousand new faces arrive recently ♥️🤩
So I thought it might be time to introduce myself and share the story behind
She Hunts Op Shops 🌴
She Hunts Op Shops began almost entirely by accident! 🤸🏽♂️🙋🏼♀️
Around 13 years ago, I was living in Melbourne and building my photography business. I had started photographing newborns and young families in their homes, which often took me into suburbs and pockets of the city I wouldn't otherwise have visited.
After each session, I'd make time to explore the local op shops. Before long, it became a weekly ritual. I was furnishing our flatshare with beautiful second-hand treasures, finding incredible bargains and rescuing forgotten gems from hard rubbish collections on the side of the road all while photographing newborn babies - it’s rather unique indeed 🤣
It reached a point where I was regularly phoning my husband Sean from the road and asking him to go to my computer and tell me which op shop I'd previously photographed in whatever suburb I happened to be driving through 🕺
I needed a way to access my op shop database while I was out exploring.
Facebook was still relatively new at the time, but I realised I could upload all my photographs into albums and access them from anywhere. So I created a page, uploaded around 1,700 op shop photographs and carried on with my life.
A week or two later, I discovered something unexpected.
People had started following along 🥰
Within a short time there were hundreds of followers, then thousands, and somehow they just kept coming.
The problem was remembering where I'd found everything.
As a photographer, I always had a camera with me, so I started documenting the op shops I visited. On my computer I created folders organised by suburb and shop name, with photographs showing which stores had the best furniture, the best kitchenware, the best manchester, the best books and the best hidden treasures.
What started as a personal filing system slowly evolved into a thriving community of treasure hunters, second-hand shoppers and curious adventurers.
As the community grew, so did the adventures.
Sean and I have been together for more than 20 years and we've always loved exploring. Hidden forests, forgotten swimming holes, enchanted waterfalls, quirky towns and places off the beaten track have long been part of our family adventures. Naturally, I started combining those adventures with op shopping.
A perfect day became finding a tiny country town with a handful of op shops, a weekend market, a beautiful forest walk and perhaps a waterfall hidden nearby.
Before long, I was creating detailed online Op Shop and Adventure Guides, combining second-hand shopping with travel, nature and exploration. It's admittedly a very niche corner of the internet, but it turns out there are plenty of people who love those things as much as I do.
Over the years, She Hunts Op Shops has opened doors I could never have imagined.
I've worked with councils and organisations to create treasure hunting and op shop guides, including projects in New Zealand and Australia. One of the most memorable was working with Shoalhaven City Council in New South Wales. Our little family packed up the car and spent three weeks exploring the region, photographing op shops, meeting local communities, visiting recycling centres, discovering farmers markets, wandering spectacular forests and creating a comprehensive treasure hunting guide for visitors and locals alike.
More recently, I created a Dunedin Op Shop Guide and developed The Art of the Op Shop, a workshop exploring the role second-hand shopping has played in my life, the adventures it has inspired and the ways in which treasure hunting can become part of a more sustainable and creative lifestyle.
Somewhere along the way, our family even appeared on Country House Hunters NZ after moving to Ōamaru to purchase a sanitation business. For five years we spent our days emptying septic tanks and hiring portaloos while continuing our weekend treasure hunting adventures.
That's a story for another day.
Today, She Hunts Op Shops is about far more than op shops. It's about living differently, finding beauty in what already exists, supporting local communities and discovering that second-hand can be every bit as meaningful as new.
What began as a photographer's filing system has grown into a community of more than 47,000 treasure hunters, adventurers and second-hand enthusiasts across New Zealand, Australia and beyond.
And honestly, I'm still a little bit amazed by that.
Thanks for being here.
