Inspiration for 2014

I’ve spent some time over the past week adding inspirational quotes to some of my favourite photographs to make myself a new set of desktop wallpapers for 2014 and I thought I’d share them with you all.

If anyone wants hi-res versions of these, just get in touch.

Ancient volcanoes, Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa, Bolivia

 

Red deer on bank of Madre de Dios River, Manu National Park, Peru

Confluence of the Waipa and Waikato Rivers, Ngaruawahia, New Zealand (the town where I was born)

 

Waterlily, Wat Damnak pagoda, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Convent of Santa Catalina, Arequipa, Peru

Street art, Santiago, Chile

Hoatzin, Manu National Park, Peru

Banteay Kdei, Angkor World Heritage Site, Cambodia

Laguna and flamingos, Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa, Bolivia

Wintergardens, Auckland Domain, New Zealand

 

Zhouzhuang water town, near Shanghai, China

Mt Eden, Auckland, New Zealand

Homage to home

I’ve had lots of homes in my life – in fact, a quick count reveals that my latest move brings the total to 27.

My first 17 years were spent in the bosom of my family, in the little town of Ngaruawahia, where I was born. The first few years were in a two-bedroom state house, then we moved to a larger state house in the next street soon after my brother was born. That was home for about 14 years and is where my many wonderful childhood memories are based.

Our family home in Ngaruawahia

Dorset St (the red cast is a result of
 using Kodak film in the 70s)

At 17, I went to Auckland for university, and lived a riotous life in a student hostel, before dropping out and heading off to Sydney with a friend for my first, rather short overseas adventure. There were two small, rather grotty flats in Sydney.

After that hot summer, I returned to New Zealand and a flat with 3 others in Kohimarama, followed by my first experience of living alone in half of an old house in Herne Bay. Next came a move with my job at TVNZ to Christchurch, where I lived in 4 different places in the 18 months I spent there. My first home there was in the heritage-listed Dorset Street Flats, which I see from googling suffered some damage in the 2011 earthquake; the others, in old wooden houses, appear to have survived intact.

The Ponsonby house in 2011 (image
from Ray White Realty)

Back in Auckland, I lived first on the waterfront in Kohimarama, in a flat owned by Sir Michael Fay, who lived next door and wasn’t then a ‘sir’. From there I had a few months in a little place in Mission Bay but on the wrong side of the hill, before purchasing my very first home of my own, a wonderful two-storey colonial house in Ponsonby, in the days before the developers moved in. I bought that house for about $27,000 and it’s probably now worth over a million! It was a very social house, the setting for many parties and Sundays ‘at home’. Next was a short interlude of just a couple of months in a concrete-block flat in Parnell, which was very cold but my bedroom had the most wonderful view of the museum and the greenery of The Domain.

And then my next journey to foreign shores got underway, with my first home a bedsit in the Edinburgh suburb of Stockbridge, in a Georgian terrace house that was built before New Zealand was settled – I loved that sense of history, and that marvellous city, particularly as I was footloose and fancy free during the time of the annual festival so roamed the streets enjoying daily doses of culture. But I craved the snow so headed north to the mountains, a job in a hotel and 6 months in their staff hostel. I loved that place too, the daily wilderness walks and the grandeur of those mountains … and the wild whisky-filled winter nights.

Stockbridge, Edinburgh (mine was one of those first floor windows) (image from an Edinburgh realtor)

It was in Aviemore that I met my future husband and my next move was in with him, much to his parents’ initial horror, in a bedsit in Glasgow’s Queens Park in a ‘blonde sandstone building of striking architecture c.1900'. That was mostly a cosy little place, though the bizzie-lizzies on the window seat froze solid one particularly freezing mid-winter night when the temperature descended to minus 17!

Queen's Park, Glasgow (ours were the two windows below ground level at the left) (image from a Glasgow realtor)

After a couple of years, by which time we were married, we set off on the longest possible honeymoon … nine months spent travelling back to New Zealand. I haven’t counted any of those places we stayed as homes, though we did get rather attached to a very cheap bedroom in an unfinished hotel run by a Greek named Giorgos on the island of Ios and lingered there a couple of months

In Papakura, I became something of a gardener

Arriving back in New Zealand rather broke, we dossed down with Mum and Dad in Ngaruawahia for a short time (I haven’t counted that either) before moving to Papakura, not by choice but because the ex had a specialised profession and that’s where the work was. We rented for perhaps 18 months, saving every possible penny, before buying our first home together.

The Titirangi house

After 13 years in Papakura, my second-longest abode, we bought our second home, in Auckland’s bush-filled suburb of Titirangi, where I lived for 5½ years, before leaving the marital home and moving into my bachelorette pad in the rather stylish Connaught apartment block in central Auckland city.

The bachelorette pad (images from my latest realtor)

After 5½ years my itchy feet got the better of me once again and my third overseas adventure led me to Peru, where I spent 18 months in a nice little place in Cusco, another physically cold abode but with the spiritual warmth of the friendly locals as compensation. From Peru, I travelled half way around the world to Siem Reap in Cambodia, where I hopped from one guesthouse to another and then one more in the 6 months I was there.

My last abode in Siem Reap

From there back to Auckland, to that dinky little bachelorette pad with its fabulous views over the inner city and down the sparkling Waitemata harbour. And though I returned to sell that place and become a vagabond, I found the opportunity instead to remain in the same building but downsize was too good to pass over, so my latest and current home is in the same building, with almost the same view but much less space. I’m still unpacking my books, settling in, getting cosy, putting my pictures up … but this new home has a really good feeling to it. It may be small but it’s perfectly formed!

My new home

* Please note that many of the photos shown here are not my own but were found seemingly freely available on the internet. I have added acknowledgements where known. If I have unknowingly used one of your photos and you'd like it removed or acknowledged, I apologise and ask that you contact me.

New Zealand holiday: week two

So, week two of my trip back to New Zealand, and I'm definitely seeing the place with fresh eyes - maybe because I've been away for 11 months, though I've been away for longer before, or maybe because I've been doing so much photography this year that I've learnt to see more clearly, and look up and down and in every other direction. Here is what I saw during my second week ...

366/98 April 07, 2012

This was taken when my friend Rosie and I went for a long walk around the beaches of the Manukau harbour, There was no one else around so it was wonderfully peaceful and great for fossicking along the tide line and checking out the rockpools for little sea creatures.

I love this image! It was not staged or manipulated in any way - except for a little cropping, this is SOOC (straight out of camera). A sea snail has formed the perfect question mark ... but what is the question?

366/99 April 08, 2012

This is one of New Zealand's iconic symbols - a fern frond.

366/100 April 09, 2012

I've just been staying in Hamilton for a few days with an aunt and uncle (I managed to catch up with 18 relations in 3 days - pretty good going, I think, and so lovely to see them all), and one morning we went out for a long walk along the banks of the Waikato River. It was a beautiful clear day and there were lots of ducks scattered along the river bank. These two were still slumbering.

366/101 April 10, 2012

A sign that winter is coming here in New Zealand - the crab apples are ripening. I love their bright red colour!

366/102 April 11, 2012

Today I had a short drive around my home town of Ngaruawahia (and I challenge you to pronounce that name correctly!). Ngaruawahia is the home of the Maori king and this is one of the carved wooden gateways into his marae (sacred tribal meeting place).

366/103 April 12, 2012

Considering what a lousy wet summer everyone's been complaining about here in New Zealand, I've been really lucky to have enjoyed hot sunny weather during my holiday so far - or, at least, I was until late yesterday and most of today, when it has rained rather a lot. Still, the rain brings its own delights ... like these reflections on the deck here at my friend's house

366/104 April 13, 2012

Auckland architecture, old and new. When I posted this on google+, someone commented that it was like Inception, and the photo got more hits than almost any other photo I've posted. It's the glass wall at the back of Britomart train station in central Auckland.