Yes, we can!

Yes, we can buy land here in Forster!  Today we made the enormous decision to build our next home right here in Forster, on a 2 acre block of land just a kilometre from Diamond Beach. Our offer has been accepted and we are underway in the legals. Its so exciting and also scary as Elaine rightly observed. Only about eleventy hundred building-related decisions still to be made, but THIS was the biggest one!

From our eventual home we will be able to hear the surf, walk to the beach, cycle to the local shops and yet still be far enough from the sea to grow a proper big garden.  It faces NE and is sheltered from the southwesterlies by a little wooded slope with a tiny seasonal creek.

It has a lovely dam with ducks and waterlilies.

There is a resident horse, named Dude, belongs to the people next door.  Dude canters up expectantly whenever we visit.  But so far I haven't remembered to bring him an apple or a carrot, and he loses interest in us very rapidly.

Have already met lots of people around here and they all just love the area. So the plans we once had for living at Bega have been put back on the shelf, and we will now sell our property down there.  Anyone want a farmhouse with some lovely old trees on one acre overlooking the golf course?

So the main purpose of this caravan trip has been achieved. We wanted to retire somewhere with a good rainfall, a climate with four seasons, close to swimmable surf beaches, on a north facing block bigger than an acre with good soil, and close enough to infrastructure, shops, hospital etc but still with a rural feel. Here's some infrastructure at Black Head beach...

The climate here is the big factor that makes it preferable to Bega. It gets nearly double the rain but on fewer days of the year, and is more temperate.

Our friends Robyn and Chris Borough were attracted to this area by our interest and yesterday they decided to buy a house here.  Not to be outdone, Robyn's Mum has also decided to move here and yesterday she also decided to buy - a unit in a retirement village, or "resort" as it is called here.  So last night we cracked open a good champagne and all of us celebrated our Huge Day. The day all five of us bought property in Forster!  Yesterday's seas were appropriately dramatic:

Today's sunset shot is taken from the bridge between Forster and Tuncurry.  David spotted a dolphin going under this bridge as we were driving over it a few days back.  We took that as a Good Sign.