Ophelia Mikkelson and Ryder Jones tell each other that one day they will live in a house with a view of the sea where they can watch the sun turn the water to liquid gold. For now, though, they realise they’re onto a good thing. “We can’t see the sea from our house, though we can hear it,” Ophelia says. “Actually, we’re doing pretty well. We will be lying in bed and Ryder will say, ‘The waves sound like they might be big, I better go and have a look.’”
The couple – he’s a sculptor and designer, she’s a sock maker, spatial designer and photographer – live in a ’70s surfie beach shack in the small coastal settlement of Tairua on New Zealand’s Coromandel Peninsula. “The proximity to the ocean and being submerged in nature is our favourite thing about living here,” Ophelia says.
