When is a nudist NOT a nudist?

 "Hide your craziness behind a BEAUTIFUL smile!"

 ~ Paulo Coelho

When is a nudist NOT a nudist?

Early morning red skies on our way up to the view-site.

According to Wikipedia, nudity or nakedness

is the “state of wearing no clothing”. 

It should be an ART form. 

The wearing of clothing is a predominantly human characteristic .  

It evolved from our functional need to PROTECT ourselves AGAINST COLD after the loss of body hair, and migration to colder climes.  

Yes, inane information provider Google regurgitated that little tit-bit (no pun intended).

No, it's NOT upside down, it's a reflection ... they were amazing this morning.

So why the question?

On our ramble this morning we happened upon the GOM.  

Not face to face you understand, as some of our more confrontational

encounters in the past have been, but at a distance.  

The faces she pulls when she catches a shell ... a new game we play on the beach

He was taking his early morning dip in Ladies Bay and we’d been watching the sunrise from the viewing platform.  We knew it was GOM courtesy of the red fleece discarded on the rocks with his clothing. 

 It’s his trademark ... the red fleece that is.  

He was swimming naked which isn’t unusual in Ladies Bay.  

We weren’t intentionally playing voyeur but happened to glance down as he waded into the water.  

A white derriere at that time in the morning is hard to miss. 

His attire ... or lack thereof ... got me thinking.

When is a nudist NOT a nudist?  

He wasn’t wearing any clothes but he WAS wearing a swimming cap.

Is that still classified as nudism?

The significant other remarked that at his age ... GOM, not significant other

 ... he’s probably wanting to keep warm the parts of his body that still work.  

Hence the cap.

Yep ... there's a shell about to enter her mouth!

It was early in the morning and the significance of this comment 

didn’t register for a few seconds. 

Then it left me chuckling!

Yes, I’m blonde.

I like it when the sight of GOM makes me chuckle rather than boil though.

Julia and I took the hounds to Big King park ... yep, another reserve on a volcanic cone
 ... views all around Auckland.

The hound of course didn’t understand all this hilarity so early in the morning.

“The unexpected is waiting for you. And it contains great good. Our next insight, our next opening, our next opportunity often comes when we least expect it. Never think for a moment that "the game is over." It’s not. Just when all the chips are down, the chins should be up. So...chin up. This round may not have gone well, but I promise you, this is not the last word.” 

~ Neale Donald Walsch