Happy New Year from my favourite place on Earth.

What a way to start the New Year, and to start my Blipfoto journal. This is a picture of the view from the backyard at my Grandmother's house in Snells Beach, New Zealand. I've been coming here since I was a baby, and it has always been my favourite place in the world. The house is old, and threatening to fall apart in some places, but it's a beautiful old wooden, peaked roof house, and it's full of Grandma's paintings, abstract pieces inspired by her love of astronomy and science.
The view out the back shows Kawau bay, bordered by Sandspit and Matakana to the left, Kawau Island to the right, and through the gap in the middle, on a clear day you can just see Great Barrier Island in the distance. It's what we call 'good for the soul', I can sit on the old wooden chair out the back and stare out through the Pohutukawa trees, and soak in the natural beauty for hours. It's just a magical place.