This is our 1st post since leaving England on the 26 December, it seems so long ago now.
I have written a few bits below about our new life so far,
We could have not asked for better children on the flight, not once did they complain that they were bored or wanted to get off, when we booked the flight we decided against a stopover as we just wanted to get to Australia, we had to wait at the airport for 2 hours for our next flight. The airport was nice, there was a pond with the biggest fish we had ever seen but the police were a little intimidating with their machine guns on show. I really could not be bothered to do another flight, although the kids were amazing we were exhusted, we got on the next plane and we all fell asleep.
We arrived about 8pm, it was warm and humid as there had been showers, it was quite hard to believe we had come from the cold weather in England. Our long time friend sister picked us up in two cars as we had 8 suitcases, 4 hand luggage bags and Matt's bricklaying level and took us to our apartment called Kangaroo Point. They also brought a bag of their children's toys, a map book and essentials for the fridge. They were lovely people and have two teenage sons, they then left to allow us to settle. We had a bite to eat and went with the Australain time and went to bed. We woke at 5am and this was the pattern for the 1st week, waking at 5am and asleep at 6-7pm.
The 1st two weeks Queensland had wild weather, the most rain in a decade and the tail end of a cyclone, having never been to Australia before I started to wonder what was so different to England. We had so much to do, register at our bank, get medical cards, cars, house, schools and work, but each day we did something nice with the kids. We went on the City cat up the Brisbane River, museams, parks and swam everyday even in the rain because it was still very hot.
Australia Zoo
We decided to have a day out at Australia Zoo, we had wanted to go there for a long time, it was only a little drive and we drove along funny roads like Bruce Highway and Steve Irwin way. We all brought ponchos at the entrance as it was pouring hard with rain and did so all day. In England me and the kids loved the Crocodile Hunter programs and Steve Irwin, so it was really strange and amazing being there. Everywhere you looked there was pictures of Steve Irwin, Kai loved the Crocodiles and we watched the show in the crocoseum, the kids stroked a baby Crocodile, Koala, and Wombat. There were so many Kangaroos, we brought some food and they ate it from our hands, it was a fantastic day and although very wet we did not want to leave.
Every time we were out we drove around different areas to see where we wanted to live, although Brisbane is a fantastic city, I wanted to live away from the traffic and closer to the beach, we decided on Upper Coomera on the Gold Coast, it is a 20 minute straight drive to Surfers Paradise and 30 minutes to Brisbane city centre, there is lots of building going on in this part of the Gold Coast so its great for work. We found a new development of houses and the rent is 150.00 English pound per week, for this we get a very big 3 bedroom house, it has a remote control garage, laundry, garden, downstairs loo, upstairs bathroom with shower, bath and toilet, and our room has a walk in robe and ensuite with shower and toilet and a large balcony. It has brand new beige carpets, blinds and has neutral colours on the wall. The kitchen, lounge and dining room are all open plan, the kitchen has a dishwasher and so many cupboards i could never fill them. All the windows and doors have insect mesh screen doors, so you open your glass door and then have this mesh door for the air to blow through but not the bugs. Downstairs has air condioning, and upstairs we have ceiling fans, in front of our house there is a large grass area with free gas BBQ's, there is a swimming pool, gym, spa and sauna for residents use. Over the back of the houses it is bush (lots of trees basically) they are full of beautiful coloured but very noisy birds, there are lots of noisy crows around and all day and night you hear the hum of the crickets. The other day we were eating in the garden and through the fence we saw a family of ducks waddle up the middle of the road, they were heading for a water hole in the bush.
We enroled our 6 year at the local state high school and it goes from reception year up to the last year of High school, it is seperated into Juniors, middle and high school, they do lots of sports and have won lots of awards. We had to buy the uniform from the school shop and it was quite pricey, we also had to buy all of her stationery, books and text books for the year, so far she is enjoying it, she has always made friends easily and herteacher is very impressed with her reading standard and how she works so hard. I have never seen so many climbing frames at a school so she is enjoying playtime too. Our little boy starts nursery this Friday, he will just be doing one day a week for a while.
Matt found work really easy, he woke up one morning drove on to a building site and they gave him work there and then, he leaves the house about 6am and is home between 2-3pm, this is great as in England he got home between 5-6pm and worked evenings and weekends.
We like going to Tamborine Mountain, there are amazing waterfalls, the water is so fresh,when you float in the water and look up at the waterfall and the rainforest around you, its hard to believe we are 20 minutes away from our house. As with most places there is a part with free gas BBQs, we were eating there the other day and two huge Iguanas were walking around us.
The beach is great and there are so many to choose from, our little girl has taken to body boarding and is very good at it, we wait in the water and she tells me what wave is a good one. The pullback from the waves is very strong, if our 3 year old is in up to his ankles it drags him over so when he wants to go in we hold him very tightly. The sun is very strong, we have protected the Kids very well, they have more colour than in England but have not burnt.
Petrol is cheaper than in England and we have found fresh meat cheaper than it was at Sainsburys, the restaurants are resonable to and Matt says its the best steak he has ever had, most restaurant has childrens play areas, they are very secure with only one entrance and free playstations.
Matt was bitten by a bull ant, they are quite big, it hurt a bit and stayed swollen for a couple of weeks. A very cute green tree frog was on our window, we have seen little spiders around the house just the same as England but we kill them as we dont know what they grown into. We spray regulary around the outside of the house, Matt has seen deadly Redback spiders at work and a snake at the mountain.
We have found the doctors very good so far, 2 ear infections, tonsilitus and sickness bug, we got appointments straight away unlike our old doctors and found the doctors very helpful although prescription charges for children was a bit of a shock
So far we are enjoying our new life, we do miss our families, but its got easier since we had the internet connected and we see them on skype
I hope this answers some questions for you, its great to be back on
__________________ Living and loving Australia
Last edited by matt&dan; 11-02-2008 at 01:31 PM.
Reason: forgot something
that made fantastic reading i'm really glad things are working out for you and your family,we are hoping to start the application as soon as we do our 3 week reccy,we just dont know where abouts to go as oz is sooo huge!im a hgv driver so we are waiting to see what the government are going to do about putting hgv driving on the wanted list (fingers crossed!) then as long as the wife is happy its oz all the way!! cheers, Jason.
Hi , Thank you for taking the time to write the thread , it was a good read and pleased to hear you settled well. I remember my son getting bitten by one of those ants too, his second cousin picked it up on a stick and put it on him and he got abit of a shock when it bit him!! Bless, dont think he expected a 10 year old to do that LOL
