Settling in

Mia on the Sumner Esplanade with Cave Rock behind

Rich and Amy at Cave Rock

Amy cleaning her shells at the beach

Joes Garage in Sumner - best brekkie and coffee ever!

The view from our lounge room, not bad!

Each minute that I spend here confirms that we have made the right move.  Our first weekend was magic!  No other way to describe it, the weather was stunning, it was friendly and laid back and even the kids were happy the whole time.  You can't ask for better than that!

Richard took time out to garden, something he has been wanting to do ever since we saw the house for the first time.  The girls joined in planting new herbs, vegetables and flowers and watering everything in sight.  We now have a beautiful herb garden by the back door that has all our favorite herbs and the vege patch has potatoes, carrots, chillies, broccoli and lettuce.  We are on our way to eating from our garden and I like the sound of that.  It is very dry here and while there are not water restrictions in place, they are thinking of bringing them in for the first time in 13 years.  Lets hope it rains soon!

After a frantic day of stocking the house on Saturday, we gave Sunday over to the girls so they could plan the day.  And what a great job they did!  Sumner has possibly one of the best cafes I have been to called Joes Garage.  It is a place for locals to drop by, passing cyclists to stop for a big brekkie and families to catch up.  We stopped by for a late breakfast on the deck in the sun before strolling down to the beach. 

Sumner beach is broken in two by Cave Rock, a volcanic rocky outcrop in the middle of the beach.  It is a light grey sand beach which was so different from what we were used to, the kids thought it was very special. I didn't when they walked it through my new car a short while later.  We spent the rest of the morning walking along the beach and collecting shells and driftwood for a wooden vegetable basket that Richard wants to make.  It was lovely!

So our first weekend was fantastic and made me wish we could have this and have brought our friends with us!  It would have made it complete.

To top that off, Richard started his new job today and I don't know which one of us was more excited!  It has been wonderful for the girls and me to have him around but it was time for him to return to work and so I was pleased that he had a great first day.

I have Amy starting Kindy next Monday and Mia starting school the Monday after and then I will start to explore this beautiful city and the surrounding areas.  Stay tuned for more...