COASTAL CHRISTMAS

A writer is all about enjoying a cruisy, coastal celebration with family and friends

When you live in a beach bungalow, Christmas takes a similar route to Antipodean southern hemisphere festivities.

The 1950s wooden bungalow that journalist and editor Kerryn Fischer shares with her digital strategist husband Morne, and their two sons Luc and Guy is a laidback space. Surfboards and paddle boards line the driveway while the interiors are filled with colour, pattern and eclectic finds. It's every inch a family home.

Protected from the south-easterly winds that are common during the summers, the bungalows on this part of the coast command panoramic views of white sandy beaches dotted with huge granite boulders.

And so when Kerryn and Morne found the house five years ago quite by chance on a rental website, they jumped at the opportunity to live here. The house was a find not just for its location, but also for the size of the 550sqm plot with its sizeable, tree-filled garden.

The house is not directly on the beach but located on "the finger" or headland that extends out into the sea and forms a protected cove.

With the original tennis courts that were built in 1925 on one side of the house and the sea on the other, the temptation to not work and simply enjoy the surroundings is strong.