Returning to England, Hursthouse obtained a teaching certificate with an emphasis on child psychology at the Institute of Education in London.

After a brief marriage in 1936, she spent almost two years travelling, before returning to England to engage in support work during World War II.

Unable to secure approval from the Wellington City Council, in 1980 she changed her plans and founded the View Road Park Project Society.

[1][11][Notes 1] In 1919, at the conclusion of her father's World War I service in the Royal New Zealand Dental Corps, the family joined him in Egypt for several months before going to England.

[22][23] She was back in England in 1934, studying for a teaching certificate and attending lectures on child psychology at the Institute of Education in London.

[25] In the spring of 1936 in Wellington, she married Alexander "Lex" Miller,[3][26][27] a Scottish, Presbyterian minister living in Auckland, who was the general secretary of the New Zealand Student Christian Movement.

[3][26][28] They separated soon after an August trip that year to San Francisco, California, as delegates for New Zealand to the World Student Christian Federation.

Krebs, who became influential in Hursthouse's life, was a vegetarian and an advocate of foraging for natural foods, a skill she taught the group.

[26][33] She travelled to Pomerania and stayed with Reinhold von Thadden [de], chair of the World Student Christian Federation and an adherent of the Confessing Church.

[33][34][35] Von Thadden opposed the Nazi regime, and stepped down from his post when the German state attempted to restrict membership of the organisation to Aryans.

[18][36] Bishop of Chichester George Bell sent Livingstone, who was his sister-in-law, to Berlin to work with the International Christian Committee for German Refugees.

[37] Constituted in London,[38] the group worked with Heinrich Grüber's relief offices to assist Jews and non-Aryan Christians in leaving Germany.

[51][52] By July, she was engaged in an effort to raise funds to facilitate paying the expenses of refugee students who were attending Canterbury University College.

[36] She secured a post on the staff of the Anglican Boys Home in Lower Hutt and began lecturing on the radio about child welfare.

[64][65] In 1966, she completed a master's thesis entitled, Kant, Canetti, and the Psychopaths: Doubts Compared at Victoria University of Wellington.

[4][67] In the early 1970s, she became involved with the Action for the Environment group and quickly began advocating for conservation, responsible management of development projects, and preservation of natural habitats.

She owned property on Mount Kaukau and developed plans to build five homes for this purpose on Simla Crescent in Khandallah.

The government was unfavourable to cooperative housing at the time and neighbours opposed the development, fearing problems with the proposed residents.

[70] This organisation lent money to develop the View Road South Headland Reserve, aiming to create a nature preserve, recreational green space, and sanctuary for recovery from mental illness.

[77] Miller lived in the structure until 1990 and since she vacated it, it has primarily been used as a seasonal residence for caretakers of the park, or a retreat for those seeking mental and physical solace.

[18][64] At her death, she was remembered as one of the leaders of New Zealand's conservation movement and as a staunch advocate of promoting peace, cooperative housing, and care for people with mental illnesses.