Day four: The search for a suburb continues....

Today Mark trotted off to work and us girls hit the North Shore once again armed with our map and morning tea.

Yesterday we "did" the mall. (As only four girls can :-)

Today we started with a trip up through Dairy Flat, beautiful rural country which reminded me of home (North Canterbury) and up north to Red Beach and Orewa.

I remember Orewa well from my early high school days up in Warkworth. It's very touristy but a gorgeous beach,,,in summer! It has a quaint little village centre with beachy shops and two fantastic playgrounds, so the girls inform me. Pohutukawa grow all along the beachfront, which I absolutely love. I can't wait when the are in full bloom to show the girls our native Christmas Tree.

Despite being a dreary, grey day it was warm enough for a few snaps against the lovely view. 

You can certainly see more of Whangaparaoa on a clear day.

Looking down over Orewa beach

I have decided that if we were to live north I would definitely consider Red Beach. Has a 

very forward thinking and innovative primary school too which is a bonus.

After a break and play at these coastal locations we ventured back to Albany for lunch. I managed to find the worst coffee in North Shore. At least I found it in the first week and got it over and done with. LOL

I will be on the search for the best coffee, as I promised my best friend from Rangiora that we would have a coffee date when she visited me. Anyone out there know where I an find it???

Caitlin did a brilliant job for the next hour co-piloting with the map as we checked out the following areas for housing consideration. Glenfield, Bayview, Windy Ridge, Birkdale, Marlborough and few others forgotten.

With a final bribe of an ice cream we managed to get back to our Albany accommodation exhausted.

As the evening approached we were pleased to see  a little sun. Knowing that Canterbury was shivering in the cold we took the opportunity explore the facilities available to us while we stay at "Cassa Bella". We found the playground, Tennis court and playground and even a gym to get my post baby figure sorted out....................yeah whatever!!!!!! LOL

If it was summer I know we'd be using these facilities!!

I will be pleased when this driving around is over. 

I'm sure we will do lots of driving as a family over the next few months, but it will be for a different purpose and we'll have settled into our own place by then :-) 

Once we know which areas we prefer or "feel good" to us we can then get some real estate agents helping with the actual house search. Rental properties to start with, and then we can look for properties for sale at a more leisurely pace.

Keeping oneself busy is a good way of avoiding homesickness. 

Tomorrow the driving must continue. I will be searching the "Bays".  Not sure if we can afford to live on that side. But I will search high and low cause it's gorgeous over there!

I have promised the kids that after a morning of driving we will do something exciting  .............................Chipmunks was Molly's request. 

A massage and facial would suit me.... :-)