Kate and Craig Luxton have lived in Crown Hill, between Milford and Forrest Hill, for three years, with daughters Holly (11), Rose (10) and Ruby (4). They tell Catherine Smith why they love this corner of the North Shore.
We love the Shore. We're both from the Bay of Plenty although we met in Britain. We were in Northcote Pt for nine years, then bought this house in Crown Hill. It's a 1910 villa. A friend of Craig's mother, who's 86, says she remembers coming here as a child when it was an old riding school - back then it was paddocks and gravel roads. The section is 1700 sq m, so it is like going back to the farm, the countryside that we grew up in as kids.
The East Coast Bays Rd shops are just up the road, and we can walk to the beach, even with a 4-year-old.
Our favourite walk is from Milford to Takapuna, around the rocks. There are parks everywhere. There's Milford Park at the beach, then up the road is Kennedy Park at Castor Bay, it has a great playground. Centennial Park, at the back of the golf course, is near Campbell's Bay Primary.
That school must have one of the best views in the world - you're looking at Rangitoto while you're watching the kids at netball. Awesome.
We had a choice of schools, but the kids can walk to Campbells Bay Primary. It's their own time, in their own world with buddies, and they have their own independence. You couldn't do that with a further-away school, when their lives are just run for them. Kate and I used to ride horses to school and it's those things that you remember. Friends can walk to meet each other or go up to the school to shoot netball, they don't need cellphones. There's heaps of young families around here and the school is a nice size, 120 kids.
The girls love the dairy up the road - Molly and Lesley are the friendliest people and we can send the girls up for milk and the paper. There's an old-fashioned feel to that block of shops, with a fish and chip shop, a hairdresser, a bakery, florist.
We tend to eat at places where we supply product from our business, Zealfresh, and www.rubyslist.co.nz, so our favourite on the Shore is Dida's in Takapuna, they do such a good job, and the new Marvel Grill under the Berkeley Cinema in Takapuna.
We get our artisan food at the Takapuna markets and the kids get something for their bedrooms - stuff is so cheap there.
Sometimes in summer we don't need to go anywhere else, we've got the pool and we're busy replanting the garden. There are two old totara, magnolias, gardenia, grapefruit. The kids bring their friends around, and from the upstairs rooms we can see the city and Sky Tower.
Craig still plays tennis at Northcote, there's soccer and netball in winter at Forrest Hill. Craig goes running up a bush track nearby. And for athletics and swimming the girls go to the Millennium Institute, it's only 10 minutes away.
But it's the beaches that are special on the Shore, full stop. They're clean, safe, have heaps of room and are all so gorgeous.
The history of the Shore is amazing. Where our office is located, off Wairau Rd, used to be just a road, and Tristram Ave was a big paddock. Then the bridge was built, the motorway came through, and everything changed.
The Shore is now a brilliant place for families to live.
Kate and Craig's picks
* Dida's Food Store, 178 Hurstmere Rd, Takapuna, ph (09) 489 4728.
* Marvel Grill, 32 Anzac St, Takapuna, ph (09) 486 2249.
* Millennium Institute of Sport and Health, 17 Antares Place, Mairangi Bay, ph (09) 477 2000.
