Coasting: A year by the bay

Tired of soy milk lattes and eternal traffic snarls, journalist Susan Kurosawa and husband Graeme Blundell bought a 1920s fishing shack at Hardys Bay on the NSW Central Coast and set about transforming it into ‘Peacock Cottage’ (named for resident bird Alfredo). This introduced them to the local coastal fraternity of builders, plumbers, painters and other amiable ferals—from Mother Mary the real estate matriarch to Adam the Gardener, who only works when the planets are properly aligned and ...