Hi All
Just back from our 2 week trip to Melbourne and we had such an amazing time I just want to share our experiences as I have found these posts the most helpful. Myself, my husband & our 4 year old daughter flew on the 1st May with Malaysian Airlines to Melbourne, we decided to stay in Kuala Lumpur for a night to break the journey up and because it was our daughters birthday the day we flew.
overall the flights were pretty good as we got a very good fare when we booked them in January so didn't expect too much, the leg room was good with seat back tv's e.t.c both flights were pretty full and I would Definately recommend booking seats and childrens meals in advance if you are travelling with children.
The food was good but I have to say the service/crew on the first leg was pretty poor but the second leg totally different and the crew couldn't do enough for you, I have flown alot and unfortunately this does seem to be the case with most airlines that I have flown with which is a shame as it can make a real difference to the comfort and experience.
We stayed for 1 night at the Sama Sama hotel at KL airport and I have to say it was fantastic and would highly recommend this hotel especially if you are travelling with children, we landed in KL at 0600 and got the buggy service straight to check in, we were in our room by 0700 and round the pool by 0730 lol
This was the perfect time to arrive as we managed to swim for an hour or so then went back to the room for a sleep mid morning and set our alarm to wake up for some lunch, we were then all refreshed for the afternoon/evening and all had an excellent nights sleep in the most comfy bed ever!!
We then left on the 1030 flight the next morning and KL is only 2 hours behind Melbourne so we didn't experience any jet lag. Also KL airport is probably the best airport I have ever experienced, very family friendly and very efficient.
We arrived in Melbourne around 8pm and was met by my brother and mum which was lovely, we had a slight delay at immigration but this was only to check our visa details on the system and to get the validation stamp.
My brother lives in Werribbee and we were staying with them for most of the time but had plans to visit Geelong and some other surrounding suburbs, we have been to Melbourne a couple of times already so knew the area where my brother lives pretty well so we wanted to explore a bit further afield.
We had booked a hire car with Europcar in Werribbee at a very reasonable rate which we picked up on the Monday and had for about 10 days in total, we headed down to Geelong for a few days and had booked in to the BIG 4 Riverview tourist park which was lovely. It's located in Belmont about 5 mins drive to the centre of Geelong on the Barwon river.
we liked Geelong especially down at the waterfront where they have some lovely restaurants, landscaped gardens, wide walking paths and lovely play areas for children. We walked up to Eastern beach where they have the botanical gardens and also the large enclosed pool which in summer I'm sure is an excellent place to spend time.
We also spent time exploring some of the suburbs such as Belmont, Highton, Newtown & Waurn ponds. We visited estate agents to get some info on rental property but most of the houses tend to be older here although on bigger plots (than around where my brother lives) price wise similar although I think Internet can be a problem in some of the older suburbs which will be a big consideration for us when we move.
If we secured work in Geelong then we would be more than happy to move here but probably some of the newer areas such as Waurn ponds mainly because we like the newer modern houses and would want a good Internet connection, if you want to live near the sea and have access to a city it is a good option.
Back at my brothers we spent lots of time exploring suburbs in and around Werribbee such as Altona, Hoppers Crossing, Williams Landing and Point Cook and ended up spending lots of time in Point Cook. It has a lovely town centre and everything there you could possibly need, we spoke to Point Cook real estate who couldn't have been any more helpful, they gave us lots of info on the different estates, Internet access and also a really useful guide on the schools and the strict zoned areas to where you live.
I think this is somewhere we would probably spend the first 6 months to settle in and look for work but ultimately it will depend on where my husbands job will be as we understand the traffic in and out can be difficult if you are commuting to the city.
I don't think either of us will be working in the city but if we did then we would probably look at Williams Landing which is slightly nearer and a new train station has just opened here, they are also now starting to build a new town centre so I think this will be similar to point cook in a couple of years.
Another area we spent 1 night is Caroline Springs and this was also nice, I hadn't heard about this area but my sister in law who is Aussie said we should visit and it had a really nice feel with some lovely houses and apparently good schools.
my only slight concern is the schools as our daughter will be starting soon after we plan to move next year and there seems such a mix it will be hard choosing the right one I think.
Overall though it definately confirmed that Australia is for us and we are excited about the move next year, we spoke to some lovely people and got lots of information, we also managed to open a bank account using my brothers address so we can start saving and transferring some money over the next year.
Good luck to everyone making the move x