The hills overlooking Sumner Beach offer a stunning outlook to the sky, the sea and the swarming activity of the summer. People down there are walking, swimming, windsurfing, flying kites, driving, having a coffee or sunbathing on the sandy beach. Julia spends the summer holidays in a beautiful place on Scarborough Road house sitting for a friend. House sitting is a common thing for kiwis: when someone leaves their house for a longer period of time that can extend to years, a trusted person moves in without payment. This way the house is lived in, cleaned, heated, animals fed, plants looked after, problems solved. Who might that trusted person be? Maybe a friend or often a person met not long ago in need. Also there are people who live in campervans offering their house sitting services online having built up a reputation of reliability. These people enjoy a traveling lifestyle spending a few months here or a year there. Julia house sits for her friend each summer and makes sure she invites her closest friends to admire the beautiful place with her. In the holidays she has her grandmother with her. “We see her as much as possible but that’s usually only once or twice a year. She loves it here, she says it is really peaceful. It is lovely to get a break.”