You can tell from the photo that the sky over Memorial Park was clear and the man feeding the seagulls had dressed against the winter with a dark, long-sleeved coat.
What you can't tell from the photo is that it was September 2013, that the man was middle-aged with a long ponytail, and that he was laughing.
Liz Kite could see him from where she and her husband Stan had parked their icecream truck. Liz thought she could get a good photo, so she grabbed her camera and went out to meet him.
She learned that the man had lived a hard life, he was homeless, and he was feeding the gulls with scraps of pie he'd fished out of a rubbish bin.
"I was taken aback that people lived like that in Tauranga," Mrs Kite said.
What she did was take donations of food to a woman downtown who had set up a table for the needy. After a week or two, the woman "kind of disappeared" and Mrs Kite found herself taking over with another person.
They fed the homeless, the addicts, the down-and-outs.
Nowadays they feed about 40 people every Saturday night at the same time, 6pm.
They call it Under the Stars.
Photo: Liz Kite
The dark side
Liz Kite's single-storey home is off a quiet, leafy back road in the hills behind Welcome Bay. Her front door is decorated with little seashells arranged in the shape of a heart, and it opens to reveal two inquisitive Yorkshire terriers.
"I have a few," Mrs Kite says.
"They are my passion."
We move to the lounge, sit down among the circling terriers, and chat to the accompaniment of Nancy Sinatra's These Boots are Made for Walkin'. Stan Kite, who chose the radio station, has driven off and left us to it.
The Kites "saw this house one day and bought it the next". They now share it with five chickens, three dogs, a puppy, two ducks, and two cats.
We ask Mrs Kite to start at the beginning, and the darker sides of her life quickly come to the fore.
"I've struggled with alcoholism since I was a teenager," she says.
"I was adopted, and I suppose that's my edge on life."
She was born in 1959, the result of a fleeting union between her mother and a jockey in Christchurch. At a time when extra-marital unions were viewed disdainfully, her mother chose a discreet birth in Auckland, followed by adoption.
"She wasn't allowed to hold me," Mrs Kite says.
"And two weeks later I was in Te Aroha."
The trauma of this early separation has remained with Mrs Kite, who believes it has influenced some of her later troubles.
Her new parents, who owned a dairy farm, were already in their late 40s. She grew up with an older brother, and she had a fraught relationship with her mother.
By age 16 she was already running away. She ended up in Hamilton, lasting six weeks in a clerical job before obtaining another position at Ruakaka. She later flatted in places including Auckland.
Volunteers prepare food at Under the Stars. Photo / Andrew Warner
In her younger years she had "a series of violent relationships" she believes were related to her lack of connection with a birth mother. Nowadays she sympathises with people who struggle to leave such relationships - she says one of her partners confronted her with a firearm, and that separation is a dangerous step.
Alcohol played a big part in her life. She believes this was a way of managing anxiety stemming from some of her experiences.
One hungover Sunday in 1982, while picking fruit in Te Aroha, she had a conversation with a friend that made her feel "a lot of peace and joy".
She'd already considered herself a Christian - as a youngster, the Salvation Army had reached out to her in the streets - but after this particular conversation she "had it in my heart that God is real".
Towards the light
The effect was transformative. Mrs Kite went to church and quit drinking for 12 years.
The Christian aspect of her life remains with her and is "one reason I do the things I do - reaching out to the 'lepers' of my community".
Mrs Kite had a daughter to a Vietnam veteran, then got married and had three more daughters. In 1996 the family moved to the Bay of Plenty to be near relatives and because "it's the most amazing place to live".
In 1999 they adopted a boy they met in Chiang Mai, Thailand, who was "very skinny and couldn't speak English".
Between 2000 and 2004, Mrs Kite studied part-time at Bethlehem Tertiary Institute. She graduated with a diploma in counselling.
She chose that subject because she wanted to help people and because "I was struggling with anxiety and depression and I wanted to get answers".
She'd already run small businesses and worked in various jobs, including as an LJ Hooker real estate agent in Papamoa. But these were never passions.
She split with her husband of 25 years a decade ago. In 2009 she met her current husband, Stan Kite, who has three children of his own.
She returns to this theme repeatedly during our conversation.
"I'm a normal person, a respectable person, but I've got a drinking problem."
Mokoira Davies Jah-Woodz at Under the Stars. Photo / Andrew Warner
Love and hope
Mrs Kite's meeting with the seagull man was "a life-changing event" that has prompted her to assume roles she describes as "joining people who need help to people who want to help".
In the wider community, she is best known for her role with Under the Stars, which has been running for two and a half years. From small beginnings, it now has 10 "angel" volunteers who help people with everyday things that many of us would take for granted, such as getting ID cards, buying footwear and having a wash - the Cliff Rd building they rent from Tauranga City Council has showers.
"We offered love, hope and compassion," Mrs Kite says.
"Then it was sleeping bags, food and toiletries from beautiful people in the community."
Mrs Kite and three other women have set up a trust that runs Under the Stars as a registered charity.
Mrs Kite also runs a Cliff Rd drop-in centre called Whare Powhiri which focuses on creative healing with discussion and art. This is open every second Thursday and allows people to charge phones, take a nap and learn about recovery from addiction. It also gives them a chance for a second shower that week.
The people she meets are often mentally ill, addicted to alcohol or other substances, and living rough.
A typical person will receive $210 a week in benefits and pay $170 for a boarding house, then pay a fine, after which "they are literally left with nothing for food".
Finding answers
The problem starts with "disconnection" and trauma which lead to what Mrs Kite calls "a disease of loneliness".
James Lowrie enjoys an Under the Stars meal. Photo / Andrew Warner
Then there's access to accommodation - an acknowledged problem in Tauranga.
"It's hard enough for someone with a job and education to get a home these days," Mrs Kite says.
"These people are just like you and me. They want a home."
There are more people and fewer houses nowadays. People turn up barefoot. Some lack the ID and address needed to get an MSD benefit.
"There's a story, a pain, that backs up every addiction."
Is there a solution?
Mrs Kite believes that Tauranga needs "small places" with basic facilities that allow people to live in private. This is important, because many homeless people have "funny little ways" and clash if they spend too much time together.
She dreams of being involved in the establishment of these small homes, or of a half-way house.
"My goal is to provide homes for the homeless. I just need a house," she says.
"I don't know how we are going to do it, and I don't know where to start, but that's my goal - with the help of my angels."
Amid the despair, there is hope.
"I have seen changes. Sometimes it takes a while. But there is a guy that has a place and has stopped his addiction now, and I've seen people get off the streets - a lady who was pregnant ..."
Mrs Kite says she will continue with her charity work - it would be "like leaving my family if I left".
Leaving is something that we must do. After we take Mrs Kite's photograph, she hands us her business card. It shows the usual contact details and is printed against the background of a photo.
A photo of a homeless man feeding seagulls in Memorial Park.
