In November 1904, Sheppard returned to New Zealand with her husband, but he went back to England in March the following year. Sheppard moved into the house of her old friend william Sidney Lovell-Smith. She remained relatively inactive in political circles, and stopped giving speeches, but continued to write. She prepared a display on the history of women's suffrage for the 1906 Exhibition in Christchurch, and wrote the pamphlet Woman Suffrage in New Zealand for the International Women's Suffrage Alliance in 1907. The following year she travelled to England for her son's wedding, visiting the headquarters of the WCTU in Chicago on the way, and meeting with suffrage groups after arriving in Britain. In 1912–13, she travelled with Lovell-Smith and his wife Jennie through India and Europe. While she did not recover her former Energy, her health had stopped declining, and she continued to influence the New Zealand women's movement to a great extent, including being the first to sign a petition to the Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward in 1916, asking him to urge the British government to enfranchise women, and with a group of other prominent suffragettes revitalising the National Council of Women in 1918. Sheppard was elected President of the National Council that year before stepping down in 1919.