So here I am at the golden hour pretending I’m out for a healthy morning walk. Really, I’m out people watching today and I  have been here waiting for just the right light and just the right scene to grab me and cause my insides to leap with excitement. Most mornings, I pound my way along the beach, clamber up the steps along the cliff face you see in this picture and carry on walking uphill to Ardern Road where I stop at the look out point beside a rather opulent house. No, it’s not the house I’m interested in. It’s the wonderful play of light and colours I see out on the water and the beach below. It’s the exuberant chocolate spaniel that leaps over the waves as they roll in to shore and the little pooches and their ambulant owners that capture me.

I left the manic city life so many years ago — it feels like a shadow of a life then. I have precious memories of a life I left behind as I embrace my new home here in Aotearoa, Land of the Long White Cloud. I chose New Zealand because it had more sheep than people.  In spite of immigration numbers, I hope the sheep are still outnumbering the people. I am keenly aware that us Homo sapiens are really the intruders in Nature’s space.

I hope you will enjoy following this blog. It’s not solely a travel blog. It’s a blackboard for me to share some snapshot moments during my travels through life. Instead of racing through it and failing to see what it is all about and has to offer, I’ve chosen to have a play in its dappled lights and allow myself opportunities to be amazed. Come and walk with me in awe.

Bernadette