Going wild with House Portraits in New Zealand

Talk about Homes with Personality!

This was another thing that really struck me when I arrived back in New Zealand – something else that I had forgotten about. The unique character imbued into every square foot of so many of the homes here is pretty outstanding! I heard somewhere that Kiwis spent more time and money on their house and garden per capita that any other place in the world. I believe it. It’s become an observable trend in these parts.

I mean where in the USA do you find “Garden Cafes”? These are an amalgamation of very fancy garden centers with trendy cafes/eateries that are set in beautiful outdoors settings, sort of a cool coffee house in a mini-botanical garden.

OK, back to house portraits. Now take a look at this house here. That’s what I call personality! It happens to be where Bruce and I am staying right now, with my sister Michelle and her husband Paul. They converted this place 20 years ago from a one bedroom beach house (batch as they say here) to this super comfortable and artsy two-story four-bedroom home. Check out the view you get from the deck. This looks over Wainui Beach which is right next to Gisborne, the first city in the world to see the dawn every single day.

And here are a few other homes in Gisborne, just chosen at random, to give you an idea of what I am talking about.

 

I am producing my first house portrait right now, a lovely lakeside dwelling just outside of Rotorua. Actually, I’m doing three watercolors of this property in order to capture all its  facets. I’ll show it to you when I’m done. . .

Leisa