FROM THE EDITOR

How do you feel about unannounced guests? It’s a question we often ask when we interview celebrity homeowners* and, in most cases, their answer is a clear “no thanks”.

Radio host Jay-Jay Harvey and comedian Urzila Carlson both make it quite clear they don’t appreciate drop-in visitors. Artist and Mexican food entrepreneur Otis Frizzell is even more adamant. “Really, really, really don’t like it,” he tells us. “I never do it, and I don’t want anyone to ‘just drop in’. Please never do this.”

I get this. I understand do-your-own-thing times at home are precious. I i magine it is especially so for public figures, but pop-in visits can be hard to take even for normal people on a tight schedule. It’s hard to enjoy the warm human moment when a friend’s face appears at the door while you’re cleaning out the freezer and racing to get a WOF before the testing station closes. Which is probably why – at least in mad, busy Auckland where Jay-Jay, Urzila, Otis and I all live – so few of us toss around the “any time you’re passing” invites these days.

This is a pity, of course. I suspect we all share that utopian vision of a warm community where people are home and keen for a coffee and a chat. It’s just that, for many of us, this isn’t reality and even a catch-up for coffee requires a long, drawn-out session of mutual calendar checking and rescheduling. Turns out the legendary Kiwi lifestyle actually isn’t laid-back at all.

Being a Kiwi in summer, however, is different. On holiday at the beach, our spontaneous sociability bubbles up. In this holiday issue of NZ House & Garden we visit six coast-hugging homes and talk to holiday homeowners bursting with bonhomie and a more-the-merrier attitude to guests.

Unannounced visitors? Not a problem in the McSweeney household on Mount Maunganui beach, where seven kids (four of their own and three visitors) were making themselves Sunday pancakes in the airy, open-plan kitchen the day our writer visited (see page 16).

Nor is it a problem in the Point Chevalier beach house on our cover and on page 56, where owner Michael Kavanagh hosts suppers and barbecues all holiday long – including one jam-packed time when no less than 33 folk come to visit: “I never get invited out… because everybody likes to come over here,” he says happily.

And, in a tiny cottage on the coast at Te Awanga, ex-Aucklander Louise Worsp marvels as a steady stream of passers-by knock on the door of her charming, crooked coastal cottage and often end up staying for a sunset gin and tonic (see page 88).

Happy stories, these. Of New Zealanders at their relaxed and welcoming best, with time to open their homes and really enjoy other people.

No doubt about it: summer is the very best time to be a Kiwi. Enjoy yours.

SALLY DUGGAN