Imagine losing your vision as an adult -- it's one of the most frightening prospects a person can face.
For many of us, going blind would be considered a worst case scenario, a living nightmare.
But two women who have faced, and are facing just that, have tackled it in the most unlikely of situations.
Dunedin woman Julie Woods lost her sight as an adult when not one, but three separate diseases stole her vision.
She says people think blindness is black, but for her it's white.
"It's like looking through a frosted up bathroom mirror with the lights off, if that kind of makes sense."
One of her unique Cooking Without Looking tutorials is how to make vanilla meringues.
With electric mixers and hot ovens, the kitchen's a bit of a minefield, but Ms Woods says learning to re-navigate the space is how she got her power back.
Instead of looking while cooking, it's about using the other senses.
"Using your sense of touch, you can tell whether chicken is cooked by tapping the skin," Ms Woods says.
But it hasn't always been this easy -- going blind certainly wasn't part of Ms Wood's plans.
She had a husband and was settling into life with a young family when an eye infection hit her.
"It was scary," she says. "My perception of blindness was a blind person who sat in a dark room and didn't go out much."
For a while, she was afraid to leave the house and of what people might think. On top of that, her husband left her.
But Ms Woods spent the next few years fighting to get back on her feet, mapping a course around her house and then further afield.
She's achieved a great deal but still grieves for the sight she once had.
One of the sights she misses is her children.
"When they were born, I could see them, and I know it doesn't really matter but I guess if that was one thing [I would want to see]."
A little further south in Invercargill is Liz Anstice, a woman facing that same fate, the loss of her eyesight as an adult.
"I thought, 'Why me?' That's the question everyone says when you get told that, 'Why me? Why am I not going to be able to see … my husband's face.
"And that's the one thing that's the hardest, waking up one morning and not seeing my husband's face."
Ms Anstice has now lost 50 percent of her vision and she's living with the knowledge that in time she will go completely blind.
And that's where Ms Woods comes in.
Through the Blind Foundation she's become a mentor for Ms Anstice, a guide if you like, helping her transition into the sightless world.
"She's taught me to be confident, to stand tall and to be strong. She'd told me it's okay to go out there on your own," Ms Anstice says.
And one hugely important thing Ms Wood has encouraged Ms Anstice to do is keep working -- which means navigating a busy hotel kitchen.
That's no mean feat, surrounded by hot surfaces, sharp implements and constant traffic.
Despite working with knives and her failing sight, she hasn't had any accidents so far.
Like Ms Woods, Ms Anstice is at home in the kitchen, where she sticks to her routines to make up for her lack of vision.
But away from work, Ms Anstice's confidence fades.
Ms Woods hopes in time she might eventually follow her lead further afield.
She's visited all seven wonders of the world -- proving that some sights don't need to be seen to be appreciated.
"She can take a look at me and say, 'Hey, Julie went to India to the Taj Mahal, maybe I could go to Auckland to see ACDC'," Ms Woods says.
And it turns out that first major step for Ms Anstice isn't a concert in Auckland, but instead the capital for a very important function.
For the first time since she lost half her sight, Ms Anstice has flown alone from Invercargill to meet Ms Woods in Wellington.
They're going to Government House for the 125th anniversary of the Blind Foundation, and for the guide dogs it's the social outing of the year.
But it's the small steps that started at home, the everyday challenges mastered one after the other, that remind these two women that losing your sight is not the nightmare the sighted world fears.
When asked what impact it's had on her life, Ms Woods says her answer depends on when the question is asked.
"If you ask me now I would say it's a huge positive impact that it's had on my life, but if you ask me back then, I thought my life had ended.
"I didn't realise it had just begun."
Newshub.
