After the Storm |
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A natural calamity has had hidden blessings for Rarotonga residents Janet and Neil Dearlove.
Walk into their new beachside home in Rarotonga and you feel a sense of serenity. It’s the start of a new day and waves break softly against the rocks below the living room windows. The duck-egg blue horizon stretches out. Beach and house seem inextricably and harmoniously entwined. |
But a year and a half ago a dramatically different scene was played out here. On 15 February 2005 Cyclone Nancy roared through Rarotonga and, sadly for the Dearloves, as for so many on the island, their house was shown no mercy. “It was a once in a million years type thing,” recalls Neil. “We caught the full force of the cyclone on this part of the beach.”
Just prior to the cyclone, NZ House & Garden magazine had visited the Dearloves to photograph what was then their newly-built dream home, for a forthcoming issue. Before the story had even gone to print, the house lay suffocated under a Pompeii-like blanket of sand. After years of hard work building their island home, it was a devastating scene for the couple.
A feisty spirit is a Dearlove trademark though and they are now celebrating the resurrection of their fabulous house. It is filled with treasures that survived the cyclone as well as much that is new. The Dearloves believe that what they have now is even better in its second incarnation. As Janet says “in the end what matters is that the family was unharmed and we have got our wonderful life back.”
To view the Dearlove’s story from the NZ House & Garden television series, follow the video link above.
Click here to see the Dearlove’s original home from the NZ House & Garden magazine story run in 2005.
| For the full story on their new home, pick up a copy of the October 2006 issue of NZ House & Garden magazine, in store now. |
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