Here, the husband wanted to make his Mexican wife feel at home in New Zealand and to open the house out to the garden landscape. He also loved to cook outside Mexican-style. His wife loved the sizzling hot colours and warm adobe background of her homeland. The resulting design is a vibrant entertainment, cooking area and garden. Colin McLean and Ross Leong designed the hard landscape which is enhanced by Sue’s vivid plant palette. But the true spirit of Mexico leaps out in the richly coloured glazed and terracotta tiling of the paving, cooking area and pizza oven, by Chris Southern and Tom Koene in partnership with Middle Earth Tiles. Chris worked with Hundertwasser tiling the famous Kawakawa toilets and now teams up with Tom to create artistic tile work for private clients.