Judith de la Cour points to the godwits on the sandbar in the middle of the estuary in front of her Redcliffs home in Christchurch. The birds have taken up residence for summer, having flown in from the Arctic a few months earlier. Earlier, a paddleboard floated past her new home, followed by a small yacht. There’s always something to look at on the water.

She’s been in the waterfront home for little more than a year after having built a home on the front of the land and lived in it with her late husband, before building the stainless steel-clad home on the rear of the section in what she considers her forever home. She’s future-proofed the two-storey home with a lift and earmarked the second bedroom and ensuite for a future caregiver.

Right now though, it’s dubbed the cats’ room and is where beloved kittens Sai the Burmese and Misha the Mandalay spend much of the day when they’re not in their purpose-built “catio” – an enclosed outdoor area that keeps them safe.

When she engaged Herriot Melhuish O’Neill Architects her brief was simple: two bedrooms, three bathrooms. “And I needed a study, but I wanted all the living upstairs.”

Maximising those views was also imperative. The architect recommended full-height picture windows and sliding doors throughout including a bathroom that opens out to the water. As well, fully functioning windows in the open-plan kitchen on the first floor stand in for a more traditional splashback.

Judith’s home may be thoroughly modern, but she has filled it with treasures and antique furniture from her 14 years living abroad in Britain and France, as well as some of her mother’s Victorian pieces. “People say you can’t mix modern and antiques, but you absolutely can,” she explains, pointing to her gold-framed calendar girls picked up in a village in Yorkshire and an antique-style bookcase she had specially made in France.

It’s simple pleasures like being surrounded by furniture that hold memories, enjoying the company of her sweet kittens and marvelling in that everchanging view from the banks of windows.

“From my bed in the morning, I can often see the pink through the blinds, so I quickly get the remote and pull the blinds up, she says. “I couldn’t be happier.”