... already we have an audience of 3 ....

Hmmmm ... the thing Julia and I love about our Bay of the Tree is that we seldom meet anyone down there ... it’s secluded, it’s private and the hounds and Julia and I have a ball. We get to watch the sun rise and Rangitoto light up as it’s bathed in the glorious early morning rays.


Julia’s had an avid eye on the weather and the tide tables this week ... we can only access our Bay of the Tree at low tide and she wanted me to do a photo shoot of her, wearing her wedding dress, together with Indy and our magnificent “dead” tree as the backdrop.


This morning was perfect, the tide was right and the weather

My GORGEOUS friend and her hound!

was looking good .... WeatherWatch have been forecasting heavy storms for Auckland but they haven’t materialised yet. We needed to be on the beach reasonably early for the light to be right so Julia put all her paraphernalia in the car and met me at the entrance to Ladies Bay at 8.30.


Our timing was perfect ....

from a weather and light perspective .... BUT from a privacy perspective .... NOT ON YOUR NELLY!   


We crossed the rocks to our Bay and found it occupied by a couple making out ... in the exact spot where Julia was going

Indy with the bag of treats!

to change into her wedding dress.  They seemed a little perturbed by our arrival in the bay and watched as we walked across the sand to a rocky outcrop and laid out the blanket and Julia’s dress. As Julia started changing another man came into the bay and walked across the sand .... came back, stripped off and went for a swim!

Please Mom ... can you come and play with me now???

This is supposed to be our secluded and private bay but already we have an audience of 3 ... there was still 1 more to come .... another nudist ..... who also stripped off and went for a swim .... then came back to sunbathe on the rocks right next to us!

I found this HUGE log for you to throw!

We continued as planned ... we had to do the photo shoot today as the weather and tide was playing ball ... we couldn’t have asked for more. Whilst Julia got into her dress I took Indy’s gentle leader off but disconnected his lead by mistake.  We’d kept him on lead as we hadn’t wanted him to roll in the sand or get wet before the photo

Indy trying to find more treats under my bag.

shoot.  He took full advantage of my mistake and went charging off down the beach totally ignoring Julia’s and my calls for him to come back.  


Clever hound that he is, he found one of the bags of treats Julia had bought along and ripped it open .... he thought this was a great

game .... racing along the beach, Carol in hot pursuit with a bag of delicious treats in his mouth!  I did eventually manage to catch him and restore order but not before him and Chocolat had gobbled up half the bag of treats!!


Photographing hounds

and children is notoriously difficult .... they never look in the right direction .... they do the unexpected .... they show parts of their body they shouldn’t!!  Trying to get Indy to sit where we wanted him .... focus on the camera instead of the treat .... not include his lipstick in the photo .... caused much mirth. 

We did get some great shots .... a lot of unconventional shots ... but that’s what happens when you bring an animal into a photo shoot.


Our ‘making out’ couple headed off down the beach after we’d finished and Julia and I packed up and played with the hounds. 

Something caught their eye!

As we were preparing to leave the couple came back into the bay .... they stopped to chat .... wanted to know what the photo shoot was for.  I didn’t notice .... but Julia did .... the man’s fly on his trousers was down!  Whatever we’d interrupted with our arrival in the bay had obviously been concluded further along

the coastline .... we had such a good giggle!


Days like this are special ... unconventional days where we get to do the unusual ... the unexpected ... and we have so much fun doing it.

I hope the photos depict what Julia wanted.  I’ve had a lot of fun taking them ..... I love that spot in the bay ... for me it adds something magical to every picture I take there.  I hope that magic is in Julia’s pictures.

The storm WeatherWatch  have been warning us about.