We were once again on the smooth sand of Mount Maunganui beach, finally!! We set down our bags. We had everything you could possibly need for the beach, surf boards, boogie boards and a lot of sand castle building equipment! After pulling our wetsuits over our togs, my sisters, Daisy and I all set out for the water.
Daisy is 5 years old and a very, very bubbly person! Always seen with her hair messily swept back into a ponytail and freckles speckled across her nose, she is a total beach baby. Having grown up 2 streets away from the beach, with a paddling pool in her backyard all year round and parents with crazy surfing skills! At 5 years old she could already jump in the pool on her own, in the deep end, and dive under any wave that comes at her, no matter the size. Let’s put it this way. I absolutely love water, but grew up more on the city side of it. I only learnt to properly dive under waves at the age 9.
“Come on!” Daisy yells, the sound of waves crashing in the background. She holds out her sandy hands for me and together we wade in deeper. After my skin had stopped tingling and the sun was making more of an appearance. Daisy and I were diving underwater, wave after wave. Eventually my sisters joined and we were leaping, diving and running from all the waves.
Daisy has the cheekiest smile you will ever see, as well as a cute laugh to go along with it. She is also the most confident little girl I know as well, because she is always happy to show off her mad dancing skills.
After arriving back from the beach and hosing down. We sat down on the deck, our ice-blocks dripping down our fingers. Music was blaring from the speaker next to me, and at almost every song, Daisy would jump up and do some sort of fancy footwork, who knows what she was trying to do, all I know, was that it was adorable! After a while, their ting dog, Teddy, came out to join us, getting excited if somebody stood up.
“Awww Teddy!” Daisy would shriek with laughter, “Doggy’s can’t have ice-blocks!”
Slowly the sun started setting, disappearing behind the waves. By then we were all spread out in the sleepout, watching either Ballerina or Trolls, Daisy’s choice. While I sat at the back of the sleepout, colouring or on my phone, Daisy and my little sisters were up the front, hysterically laughing at every joke made in the movie.
Eventually Daisy’s mum came in, announcing that it was time for lights out, and of course Daisy didn’t want to go back into the house, I mean, we were pretty cool people to hang out with!
“But mummy, I don’t want to go to bed! I’m not tired and I want to stay with the girls!!”
After reminding Daisy that we were still going to be here in the morning, we all followed her to the bedroom. Her mum tucked her in first and then read her a story, after that, Debbie came into the lounge where we now were and said,
“Daisy has requested to see you girls.”
One of my little sisters and I tiptoed into Daisy’s room slowly, then we said goodnight and exchanged tight hugs.
“Rory?” she’d ask,
“Yeah?” I responded,
“Are you coming to the beach with us tomorrow?”
“Of course!” I answered, softly calling out from the doorway, “I wouldn’t miss it for the world!”