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

They're just MIMICKING our behavour!

The hounds - yes, PLURAL -  had as much to say as ME this morning!

First time I've seen the Sparrows feeding off a Callistemon shrub.

... and that’s REALLY unusual.  

Or is it?

Sam belongs to one of the FEW people who has MORE words falling out of her mouth than even I do.  

Yep you better believe it.  

There’s someone else on this planet who’s NEVER at a loss for words. 

 It’s an oddity that she’s called Carol too.

Even when he's dirty, he's gorgeous.

It’s not much of a mystery then to understand why our hounds are so vociferous when they’re together. 

They’re just mimicking our behaviour.  

It’s so obvious I can’t understand why I didn’t work that one out sooner.  

And NO, it’s NOT because I’m blonde.

The closest I got to the Kingfishers today was along the telephone lines.

I think the hounds like the sound of their own voices but I don’t think the elderly locals find it quite as amusing as we do.

One Labrador barking on the beach is quite enough. 

TWO Labradors barking on the beach is a CANINE CACAPHONY.  

Add Indy to the mix and it’s definitely NOT a Labrador LULLABY that you’re listening to.  

Anything but!

It starts off quietly enough.  

Both hounds minding their own business, busily digging trenches in the sand

 .... until one hound finds a log.  My hound.

Look Sam .... look what I've got!

They’re just like toddlers.  What one hound has, the other one wants.  

That’s when the conversation begins.  

Sam wants the log.  

The hound won’t let him have it.  

He’s persistent.  She’s stubborn.  

He sneakily tries to grab it.  She tells him off.  

He yells at her.  She yells back.

Sam trying to sneak it away from her

I join in and tell them BOTH to stop barking.  

They yell at me so I yell back.

.... but she's having NONE of it!

The cycle’s broken when I throw the log in the waves.  BOTH hounds charge after it.  Sam’s usually the FASTER swimmer but he’s light and when the waves are choppy, she has the advantage. With log to hand, she twists and turns to prevent Sam grasping the log too but he’s got wise to that trick and just leaps over her!

Tranquillity is restored ONLY when we leave the beach.

The elderly locals must breathe a sigh of relief when they see that happening.

Talking of elderly locals  ... I think we might have met our nudist this morning.  

Fully dressed fortunately!

No, he's NOT young and NO, he's NOT a fine physical specimen ... as the daily tabloids would say.

He's just an elderly gentleman who likes to swim 'au naturel' .

Browns Island looking gorgeous in the morning sun.

"The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means NEVER losing your enthusiasm." 

~ Aldous Huxley

Mr. Heron having his morning tea.

This young chap put on quite a skillful display this morning.

Impressive jumping by our Kite Surfer!

... 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.