I've been living in Silverdale for only six months, and before that we were in Stanmore Bay. We were renting there, and had spent two to three years looking for somewhere to buy. We were quite fussy purchasers, and couldn't find anything that suited us; the real agents asked if we'd ever thought of building. So we drove into Silverdale, the Millwater subdivision, looked for a section with all-day sun, and we found it. It took 16 weeks to build and we are very pleased with the results.
Millwater is one the fastest growing areas in New Zealand. It's just massive, eventually there'll be 10,000 people, on 3000 sections. They've already created some large parks. We found a section that's very close to Butler Stoney Park, its a great big piece of grass now but the council will turn it into a nice reserve. There's another large park where the council is constructing some playing fields and that'll be the active area, right on Orewa Estuary. There are a number of children's playgrounds already made and landscaping in the street, so the whole package looks very attractive.
Silverdale itself is undergoing a massive commercial redevelopment too. There are 230 shops coming on-stream in the next few months. Silverdale has a cute little town centre at the minute, which is quite small, most people pass it by, but soon it'll be a major destination.
There's a neat pub in Silverdale called the Wade Hotel, an old pub that's recently undergone some renovations. It doesn't look like much from outside, but the inside is gorgeous. It's very popular, they have great food and outdoor seating. There are a couple of cafes, although we're gluten-intolerant so we're fussy about cafes, and haven't yet found one that caters for us. So we sometimes go to Orewa to Alley Cats, only a few minutes drive away. They do a delicious vege stack. Of the 200 shops about to arrive, we've heard there's going to be a Burger Fuel, which is a favourite takeaway for us as they do gluten free buns. There'll be a branch of Mozaik Cafe; they have one in Orewa which we like to go to, so having one in Silverdale will be good. They do brilliant mushrooms on toast, I also like their prawn and chicken and salad.
