Artist Jenny Foster tells Elisabeth Easther about living in Whitford and getting to know the neighbouring areas.
We've been in Whitford for 11 years now, and before that we were in Howick. We moved here because we found five acres in the country. We really enjoy the space and the rural outlook, the wildlife is great too, there are frogs, pheasants, Californian quail, tuis, kereru, morepork, fantails, hawks, lizards, large spiders, pukekos and wild ducks. We love being in the country, yet really close to town, as it's just five minutes to civilisation with very easy access to the motorways at Highbrook, which makes commuting to the city easy. I was brought up semi-rural, so Whitford pushes all the buttons of my childhood. When we first moved out here, the boys were 11 years younger, and were a bit hesitant about living in the country but you wouldn't shift them now. In fact one of them still lives at home with us.
Whitford Village is very nice. There are lovely gift shops, cafes, a bakery and a Four Square, and a dairy. There's a petrol station too, although I tend to go into Howick a lot still. My favourite cafe in Whitford is Amy's Kitchen, they do fabulous mushrooms on toast, highly recommended.
There are lovely walks from Whitford Village too. There's one that goes around through the estuary. I think it comes out at the bottom of Broomfield's Peninsula; my husband Glen loves to do the walks, that one's called Wade River Coastal Walk.
We love the close proximity to the beautiful beaches at Beachlands, Omana and Maraetai. We go to Maraetai for breakfast sometimes, there's a place right on the waterfront called The Bach that we love. Then if you go further afield there's Kawakawa Bay, Miranda and the Sea Bird Coast with its bird wildlife sanctuary and visitor centre. There are 20 council reserves around here, for people to enjoy the rural outdoors and coastline
