Auckland Home Interiors

I've been enjoying the beautiful winter weather here in Auckland, New Zealand in late June, and had the wonderful opportunity to photograph a gorgeous home in Northcote Point.  It was featured as the cover story in the January 2011 issue of New Zealand House and Garden.

I travel with minimal equipment, so I found a fantastic camera rental centre (notice the Kiwi spelling of center :D ) at Topic Camera Rentals for the 24 mm t/s lens used to create these photos.

This home, like the people who live in it, is warm, welcoming and engaging of all the senses.  There's a strong feeling of Aloha in the decor, making me feel right at home when I'm thousands of miles away from mine.

The home consists of two dwellings - the 4 bedroom/2 bath main home and a 2 bedroom/1bath cottage, adjoined by a covered walkway behind the swimming pool.  These beautiful homes seamlessly blend indoor and outdoor living with the numerous decks to take in the garden atmosphere.

My Happy Birthday

I am in New Zealand for a couple of weeks, and while we've been here, it was my birthday.  In addition to the hundreds of loving birthday greetings from around the world from my kids and facebook friends, my dear friends David, Dale and Melinda prepared a wonderful birthday celebration for me.  The first question was - "what would you like to eat?"  India food sounded amazing, so that's what I said.  Well!  when we got home after a wonderful day in the city (I'll put that in another post), I walked into a home looking like an elegant Indian restaurant.  They even had an Indian woman write "Happy Birthday Kathy" in Sanskrit.  

My first bite sent me into another world - SO delicious!  So I didn't even think of taking a photo.  But you can see the decor and the dessert anyway.  

Thank you Bob, David, Dale and Mindy for such a memorable evening!

Anniversary in Puerto Vallarta

Thirty-five years ago, I said "I do" to the man of my dreams.  And when I dream of him now, it's still about how wonderful it is to be together.  On our honeymoon, we went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - our first international trip.  

So this year, we decided to go back to Puerto Vallarta.  What a load of memories came back to us!  I could picture the younger version of us standing on the beach looking into the future of what all might be in store for us....what would our kids be like, where would our dreams take us, the faithfulness of God to bring us together, and how much He loved us to start us on our journey together.  And how we could now look back over the amazingness (is that a word?) of these many years together, realizing that there is still so much ahead.

So, not too much thought of photo quality, but having lots of fun, here's a few photos.  The first is of the HUGE iguana that came crawling under the table at the restaurant next to us.  And I also had fun with my iphone, using hipstamatic and a new app I downloaded 360º.  Just a little something to give you a bit of me....

Greece

 Crete - our Greek destination for a few days rest and relaxation.  This is one of the fantastic advantages to being very frequent flyers with United Airlines!  The Star Alliance partnerships give us opportunity to get wonderful freebie flights to fun places!

So, when we found ourselves with an empty week between our time in Holland and our weekend in London (I DO sound spoiled, don't I??) we wondered where we'd like to go.  So we looked south to some warmth, and thought, "why not Crete?".  So, a few phone calls, and a few days later, we landed in Chania and spent time in the old city's Venetian Port at the Pandora Suites Hotel with this amazing view from our room:

  This town was meant for strolling, enjoying the alleyways, the history, the food

And one day, the Russian navy landed!

Check this out - we were walking along the seawall, enjoying the view.  Bob looked down into the water and saw these pillars!  How old could they be?  Ancient I guess - this is GREECE!!  Crazy, isn't it??

 I love visiting the local markets - always life in action!

And then, adventurers that we are, we discovered we had a five hour layover between flights in Athens. A quick trip into the city, and there we were for a sprint of a trip to the Acropolis!  Amazing!!  Are we blessed, or what??